S-45 (Explorer)

Explorer S-45
Type:	Research satellite
Country:	United States
Operator:	NASA
COSPAR-ID :	1961-F01
Mission dates
Dimensions:	34 kg
Begin:	February 25, 1961, 19:48 UTC
Starting place:	Cape Canaveral LC-26B
Launcher:	Juno II
Status:	destroyed
Orbit data

Explorer S-45 and S-45a were the names of two failed NASA satellite missions that belonged to the Explorer program . Both spacecraft should be used to explore the ionosphere .

Starts

S-45 was on 25 February 1961, a Juno-II - launcher starts. A failure after the stage separation of the second stage resulted in the loss of the payload telemetry, which meant that the third and fourth stages could not be fired. The satellite did not reach orbit and was therefore not given an Explorer designation. If the mission had been successful, the satellite would have been named Explorer-10.

S-45A was built as a replacement satellite for the lost S-45. It was also launched on May 24, 1961 with a Juno-2 rocket. The second stage ignition system failed and the spacecraft crashed. This was the last flight of the Juno-II.

After these two failures, no further Explorer S-45 satellite was built.

Web links

• Explorer S-45 on Gunter's Space Page (English).
• Explorer S-45 in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)