Alouette 2 was a Canadian research satellite launched at 04:48

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on November 29, 1965, by a Thor Agena rocket with Explorer 31 from the Western test range at

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. It was (like its predecessor ''

Alouette 1 ''Alouette 1'' is a deactivated Canadian satellite that studied the ionosphere. Launched in 1962, it was Canada's first satellite, and the first satellite constructed by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. Canada was ...

'', and Explorer 31) designed to explore the

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

History

The name "Alouette" came from the French for "

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" and from the title of a popular French-Canadian folk song. Alouette 2 was also known as ISIS-X since it was the first in a series of ISIS satellites: International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies. The next one was called ISIS-I. The Alouette 2 was built up from the identical backup satellite to ''

''. It had many more experiments and more sophisticated support systems than the earlier satellite. It lasted for 10 years, being terminated on August 1, 1975.

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, was the prime contractor; Havilland Aircraft of

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, served as associate contractor.

Post mission

After the ''Alouette 2'' was launched, the upper stage of the rocket used to launch the satellite became a derelict

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that would continue to orbit Earth for many years. , the upper stage remains in orbit. The satellite itself became a derelict after August 1975. It too remains in earth orbit .

References

External links

1965-098A
at

NSSDC The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) serves as the permanent archive for NASA space science mission data. "Space science" includes astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma (physics), plasma physics, and planetary scien ...

CBC Archives: Launching the Alouette 2 satellite
Satellites of Canada Derelict satellites orbiting Earth Spacecraft launched in 1965 Geospace monitoring satellites {{Canada-spacecraft-stub