Explorer 7
Explorer 7 | |
---|---|
Country: | United States |
Operator: | NASA |
COSPAR-ID : | 1959-009A |
Mission dates | |
Dimensions: | 41.5 kg |
Begin: | October 13, 1959 |
Starting place: | Cape Canaveral |
Launcher: | Juno II |
Flight duration: | 2 years |
Orbit data | |
Rotation time : | 96.7 min |
Orbit inclination : | 50.3 ° |
Apogee height : | 715 km |
Perigee height : | 499 km |
Eccentricity : | 0.015834 |
Explorer 7 (also known as S1-a ) is a satellite of the Explorer program of NASA . It was launched into orbit by a Juno II rocket from Cape Canaveral on October 13, 1959 . It was built to record solar radiation in the X-ray and Lyman-alpha range, as well as cosmic particle radiation . Further goals were to collect data on the discharge of micrometeorites , molecular sputtering and the heat exchange between the earth and its atmosphere . In particular, with the help of a radiometer developed by Verner E. Suomi and Robert Parent , he recorded the first data on the earth's energy balance and thus marked the beginning of satellite-based climate research . Suomi and his team used this data, among other things, to investigate the importance of clouds for the global climate .
The satellite transmitted data continuously until February 1961 and finally failed on August 24, 1961. It is still in orbit.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jonathan McDowell: Launch Log . In: Jonathan's Space Page . Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ↑ 50th Anniversary of Explorer 7 Launch . In: Space and Science Engineering Center . University of Wisconsin. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
- ↑ HE Lagow and L. Secretan (1963) Results of micrometeorite penetration experiment on the Explorer VII Satellite (1959 IOTA) . NASA Tech. Note D-1722.
- ^ US Space Objects Registry . Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2011.