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Explorer 01



General


Designation 00004 / 58001A
Launch date 1 Feb 1958
Country of origin United States
Mission Scientific: ionosphere study
Perigee/Apogee 347/1859 km
Inclination 33.2°
Period 107.2 min
Launch vehicle Jupiter C (Juno 1 from the US Army, 18 t, 21 m tall, 4 stages)
Launch site Cape Canaveral
Mass at launch 14.6 kg

Rocked realized by Wernher von Braun's team, a german engineer from Peenemünde. He had been working since 1953 at the Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville, Alabama) to design a balistic missile with the help of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

First American satellite: height 1.2 m, diameter 20 cm. It was in fact the 4th stage of the rocket. Carrying 5 kg of instruments (batteries, radio transmitter, Geiger counter).

Has discovered Van Allen belts (radiations belts around the Earth) because the orbit was more excentric than expected.

End of life


Out of service 23 May 1958
Decay 31 Mar 1970 in Southern Pacific

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