Project Vanguard, the US Navy's plan to put a satellite in orbit, isn't one of those space stories that's well-remembered and with good reason - it was a historic failure and a national embarrassment. Needless to say, we were interested. In this episode, America tries to beat the Soviets to orbit with three (3) competing space programs, Navy engineers discover possibly the most dangerous chemicals on the planet, and an unfinished, untested, underfunded, and mismanaged rocket is forced to perform "the wettest dry run in history".