WRESAT
WRESAT or Weapons Research Establishment Satellite was the first Australian satellite, 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. Australia became the seventh nation to have an Earth satellite after this launch, and the third nation to launch from its own territory,[1] after the Soviet Union and the United States (the UK, Canada and Italy's satellites were also launched on American rockets unlike the French Astérix, which launched on an indigenous rocket out of Algeria[2]).
| COSPAR ID | 1967-118A |
|---|---|
| SATCAT no. | 03054 |
| Mission duration | Data: 73 orbits Total: 642 orbits Total: ~42 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Weapons Research Establishment |
| Launch mass | 45 kilograms (99 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 29 November 1967 |
| Rocket | Sparta |
| Launch site | Woomera LA-8 |
| End of mission | |
| Decay date | 10 January 1968 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
WRESAT was cone shaped with the weight 45 kg (99 lb), length of 1.59 m (5 ft 3 in) and a mouth diameter of 0.76 m (2 ft 6 in). It remained connected with the third rocket stage and possessed an overall length of 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in). WRESAT circled the Earth on a nearly polar course, and later 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.
References
- "First time in History". The Satellite Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- "Asterix-1 – Space Archaeology". spacearchaeology.org. Retrieved 2016-11-15.