The Vanguard satellite program, announced as the first (and then only) official U.S. satellite program in July 1955 for the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year, had a rough time. The budget rocketed (I can't help writing that) from $20M to $110M; the technical hurdles on the all-new launch vehicle were seriously underestimated; after Sputnik's launch in October 1957 led to a hurried effort and a globally-publicized failure in December 1957, the Army's rival effort was green-lighted, and Explorer 1 was launched on January 31 as America's first satellite. The ultimate authority, President Dwight Eisenhower, was incensed by Vanguard's budget problems but thought the program, once announced, had to be continued for national prestige.
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Vanguard engineers were a determined bunch, though, and after another failure they put Vanguard 1 up on March 17. (The program gave numbers only to successful satellites.) Vanguard 1 was called the "grapefruit" satellites, as it was a 1.46 kg miniature of the 9.98kg satellite originally envisioned, and post-Vanguard 1 launches used this type.
Roger Easton, one of primary contributors, and the NRL went on to create the first navigation satellites and contribute (opinion on credit is sharply divided, with the Air Force basically established in official histories as having all the credit and NRL objecting vociferously) to GPS. The Vanguard program, while certainly troubled, was not a failure. Its launch technology was used in developing many subsequent vehicles including the workhorse Delta, and the satellite bus was likewise adopted for other projects. Important science was done, and the Minitrack satellite tracking system remained in use for many years. Vanguard 1 is still in orbit: Arthur C. Clarke wrote it would be undoubtedly collected for a museum, and that still may happen someday.
You can see the protocols back then were not as strict as today: Roger Easton took the satellite home for some adjustments, and this is his son Richard (red jacket) posing with it!
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