On February 16, 1965, the first Saturn launch vehicle carrying an operational payload lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. SA-9, a Saturn I Block II launch vehicle and the eighth Saturn flight, delivered the first of three Pegasus meteoroid detection satellites into near-Earth orbit. The satellites, developed and managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, electronically recorded the size and frequency of particles in space and compared the performance of protected and unprotected solar cells -- results that informed future Apollo flights to the moon. In this image, technicians inspect the satellite's 96-foot wingspan before launch at the Fairchild-Hiller facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. The Saturn I launch vehicle was built at Marshall's Fabrication and Assembly Engineering Division.

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Date: February 16, 1965

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Owner: NASA on The Commons
Source: Flickr Commons
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