Wresat
| Wresat | |
|---|---|
| Country: |
 Australia
|
| Operator: | WRE |
| COSPAR-ID : | 1967-118A |
| Mission dates | |
| Dimensions: | 45 kg |
| Begin: | November 29, 1967, 04:49 UTC |
| Starting place: | Woomera |
| Launcher: | Sparta |
| Flight duration: | 42 days |
| Status: | burned up on January 10, 1968 |
| Orbit data | |
| Rotation time : | 99.3 min |
| Orbit inclination : | 83 ° |
| Apogee height : | 1259 km |
| Perigee height : | 193 km |
Wresat (abbreviation for: W eapons R esearch E stablishment Sat ellite ) is the name of the first Australian satellite . He was on 29 November 1967 a modified American rocket of the type Redstone from the spaceport Woomera started.
Wresat weighed 45 kilograms and was in the shape of a cone with a length of 1.59 meters and a base diameter of 0.76 meters. He remained connected to the third rocket stage and had a total length of 2.17 meters with her. Wresat orbited the earth on an almost polar orbit until it burned up in the earth's atmosphere on January 10, 1968 after 642 orbits across the Atlantic . The battery-powered satellite transmitted data during 73 orbits of the earth.
Web links
- WRESAT - Australia's First Satellite ( Memento from March 29, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
- Wresat in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
- Wresat in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- Wresat on Gunter's Space Page