SPACE — On April 26, 1962, Britain launched its first satellite, Ariel 1. This made Britain the third country to have a satellite in orbit after the United States and the Soviet Union.
However, the UK did not launch it itself. Ariel 1 was launched on an American Thor-Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ariel 1 was also built at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
The UK Science and Engineering Research Council provided all the experiments. Five of the six experiments studied the relationship between solar radiation and Earth’s ionosphere, and one was dedicated to studying cosmic rays.
Scroll to read
Scroll to read
However, the fate of Ariel 1 is not so lucky. Only 10 weeks after its launch, Ariel 1 was damaged in a nuclear test explosion carried out by the US military. The nuclear explosion damaged the solar panels, and eventually they were unable to transmit any useful data. Source: Space.com
“).attr(
type: ‘text/javascript’,
src: ‘
).prependTo(“head”);
if ($(“.instagram-media”).length > 0)
$(”
2023-04-26 15:00:34
#History #Today #Britain #Launches #Satellite #Nucleared #American #Military #space
