The Transit Research and Attitude Control (TRAAC)

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 ...

was launched by the

U. S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

from

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

along with

Transit 4B Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1980 film), a 1980 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (1986 film), a Canadian short film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countrie ...

on November 15, 1961.

Mission

The 109 kg satellite was used to test the feasibility of using

gravity-gradient stabilization Gravity-gradient stabilization or tidal stabilization is a passive method of stabilizing artificial satellites or space tethers in a fixed orientation using only the mass distribution of the orbited body and the gravitational field. The main adv ...

Transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1980 film), a 1980 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (1986 film), a Canadian short film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countrie ...

navigational satellites. It provided information on the effects of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

from

nuclear explosion A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, th ...

s in space, as it was one of several satellites whose detectors provided data for the

Starfish Prime Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States, a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Defense Atomic Support Agency. It was launched from Johnston Atoll on July 9, 1962, and was the large ...

test; ultimately its

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s were damaged by the radiation and it ceased operation. It was among several satellites which were inadvertently damaged or destroyed by the

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 ...

. It is expected to orbit for 800 years at an altitude of about .

Poem

The first poem to be launched into orbit about the Earth was inscribed on the instrument panel of TRAAC. Entitled ''Space Prober'' and written by Prof.

Thomas G. Bergin Thomas Goddard Bergin (November 17, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American scholar of Italian literature, who was "noted particularly for his research on Dante Alighieri, Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' and for its translation". He was the S ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, it reads in part: :''And now 'tis man who dares assault the sky...'' :''And as we come to claim our promised place, aim only to repay the good you gave,'' :''And warm with human love the chill of space.''

References

Satellites orbiting Earth Spacecraft launched in 1961 {{US-spacecraft-stub