Set of 11 black-and-white photos showing technicians at work - Lot 12

Set of 11 black-and-white photos showing technicians at work during the various stages of Vanguard rocket production (21 × 25 cm). Vanguard was a small American launch vehicle developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), with the goal of placing the first artificial satellite into orbit. However, after 9 failures out of 12 launches between 1956 and 1959, the Juno 1 launch vehicle was tasked with launching the first satellite into orbit—Explorer 1, launched on February 1, 1958—without calling the Vanguard program into question. On March 17, 1958, Vanguard finally achieved success with Vanguard 1, which became the second American satellite in orbit. All photos are from the archives of the public relations department of the Martin Company in Baltimore (which later became Martin-Marietta and then Lockheed-Martin). All documents are original Martin documents and are in black and white.