WRESAT
| Major contractors | Weapons Research Establishment |
|---|---|
| Satellite of | Earth |
| Launch date | 1967-11-29 |
| Launch vehicle | Sparta |
| Launch site | Woomera Test Range |
| Mission duration | Data: 73 orbits Total: 642 orbits Total: ~42 days |
| Orbital decay | 1968-01-10 |
| Mass | 45 kg |
| Power | Battery only |
| Orbital elements | |
| Regime | Low-Earth polar orbit |
WRESAT (abbreviation for: Weapons Research Establishment Satellite) was the name of the first Australian satellite. It was named after its designer.
WRESAT was launched on 29 November 1967 using a modified American Redstone rocket with two upper stages known as a Sparta from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia. The Sparta (left over from the joint Australian-US-UK Sparta program), was donated by the United States. The launch made Australia the seventh nation to launch an Earth satellite. [1]
WRESAT weighed 45 kg (99 lb) and had the form of a cone with a length of 1.59 m (5 ft 3 in) and a mouth diameter of .76 m (2 ft 6 in). It remained connected with the third rocket stage and possessed with it an overall length of 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in). WRESAT circled the Earth on a nearly polar course, until it reentered the atmosphere after 642 revolutions on 10 January 1968, over the Atlantic Ocean. The battery-operated satellite sent data during its first 73 orbits of the Earth.
[edit] References
- ^ "First time in History". The Satellite Encyclopedia. http://www.tbs-satellite.com/tse/online/thema_first.html. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
