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clean up, deflag, overlink, replaced: United States → United States (2), German → German, typo(s) fixed: between 1949-1955 → between 1949 and 1955, 1957-58 → 1957–58 (2)
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On 26 May 1955, the [[U.S. National Security Council]] also endorsed a satellite program. On 8 June, [[United States Secretary of Defense]] Charles Wilson directed Assistant Secretary [[Donald A. Quarles]] to coordinate the implementation of a satellite program, with the [[United States Department of Defense]] providing the rocket and launch facilities, and the civilian IGY National Committee producing the satellite and its experimental package, the [[National Science Foundation]] being intermediary between the two agencies. A committee, under the chairmanship of [[Homer J. Stewart]] of [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]], was developed to manage the project to weigh and choose between the available satellite orbiting options. They were Project Orbiter, an Army plan to use a slightly modified [[PGM-11 Redstone|Redstone]] (a {{convert|200|miles}}) range surface-to-surface missile developed the prior year)<ref name=redstone53>{{cite web|url=https://history.redstone.army.mil/ihist-1953.html|title=Installation History 1953 - 1955|publisher=U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command|date=2017|access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref> combined with upper stages to put a satellite into orbit, which could be tracked optically.,<ref name="Vanguard"/>{{rp|18, 43}} and the NRL plan to develop an orbital capability for the Viking ([[Project Vanguard]]).<ref name="Vanguard"/>{{rp|41}}
On 28 July, confident that a satellite could be lofted during the IGY, President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s press secretary, [[James Hagerty]], announced that a satellite would officially be among the United States' contributions to the IGY. The Soviets responded four days later with their own announcement of
By 9 September, the Stewart Committee had chosen Vanguard over Orbiter, citing the Navy's impressive planned [[Minitrack]] communications technology and network as well as both the civilian nature and the greater growth potential of the Viking/Vanguard rocket. The contract authorizing the construction of two more Viking rockets to continue upper atmospheric research was expanded to include development of the Vanguard rockets.<ref name="Vanguard"/>{{rp|51–58}} The Viking was thus incorporated as the first stage of NRL's three-stage [[Project Vanguard]] vehicle which launched the [[Vanguard 1|second U.S. satellite]] in 1958. Vikings 13 and 14, substantially similar to Vikings 8 through 12, were used as suborbital test vehicles ([[Vanguard TV-0]] and [[Vanguard TV-1]]) before the first Vanguard vehicle, [[Vanguard TV-2]], became available for test in the fall of 1957.<ref>''[[Frederick I. Ordway III|Ordway, Frederick I.]]''; ''Wakeford, Ronald C.'' [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011128397;view=1up;seq=216 International Missile and Spacecraft Guide], N.Y., McGraw-Hill, 1960, p. 208</ref>
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