Ariel 1 (also known as UK-1 and S-55), was the first British-American
satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
, and the first satellite in the
Ariel programme. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and the United States. It was constructed in the UK and the United States by
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...
and
SERC, under an agreement reached as the result of political discussions in 1959 and 1960. The US
Starfish Prime exoatmospheric nuclear test affected Ariel 1's operational capability.
Development
In late 1959, the
British National Committee for Space Research proposed the development of Ariel 1 to NASA. By early the following year the two countries had decided upon terms for the
Ariel programme's scope and which organisations would be responsible for which parts of the programme.
The UK Minister of Science named the satellite after
the sprite in Shakespeare's ''The Tempest''.
Three units were constructed: one for prototyping, a flight unit, and a backup.
Design
Operation
The satellite weighed , had a diameter of , and a height of . Solar panels generated power which was stored in nickel-cadmium batteries. A 100-minute tape recorder was used for data collection.
Sensors
SERC provided the experiments, conducted operations, and later analysed and interpreted the results. Six experiments were carried aboard the satellite. Five of these examined the relationship between two types of
solar radiation
Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically p ...
and changes in the Earth's
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 ...
. They were selected to leverage techniques developed in the
Skylark
''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially ...
programme.
Mission
Launch
Ariel 1 was planned to launch on the
Scout rocket, but the rocket fell behind in development. The decision was made to launch the satellite on the more expensive
Thor-Delta
The Thor-Delta, also known as Delta DM-19 or just Delta was an early American expendable launch system used for 12 orbital launches in the early 1960s. A derivative of the Thor-Able, it was a member of the Thor family of rockets, and the first ...
rocket, although the Americans footed the bill.
Ariel 1, the first satellite from a nation besides the United States or the Soviet Union, was launched aboard an American Thor-Delta rocket from
Launch Complex 17A at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the sta ...
, at 18:00:00 GMT on 26 April 1962. The successful orbit made Ariel 1 the first international satellite.
Operations
Ariel 1 was among several satellites inadvertently damaged or destroyed by the
Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test on July 9, 1962, and subsequent
radiation belt
The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others ma ...
. Its solar panels sustained damage from the irradiation, affecting Ariel 1's operations. The satellite operated even after the nuclear test. The radiation disabled the timer that would have deactivated the satellite after one year, effectively extending the satellite's life. It
decayed from orbit on 24 May 1976.
Results
The experiments provided X-ray energy data from over 20 solar flares.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
The Cold War nuke that fried satellites(BBC)
The Ariel 1 SatelliteFirst International SatelliteElectronic Integration of the UK-1 International Ionsphere SatelliteSpecial issue: 50 years of the UK in spaceThe Royal Society's Formative Role in UK Space ResearchThe Ariel 1 Satellite
{{Use dmy dates, date=January 2014
Spacecraft launched in 1962
United Kingdom–United States relations
Satellites formerly orbiting Earth
First artificial satellites of a country
Satellites of the United Kingdom