On Sept. 29, 1962, 61 years ago today, Canada launched their first ever satellite. Now, what is a satellite? Well, a satellite sends signals to your homes from space, and the signals are for you to be able to watch T.V. Satellites are what some people call “the backbone of TV.”
Canada got the idea shortly after Russia and the United States launched their own satellites. It took three and a half years of design and development for them to be able to launch “Alouette-1.” Before launch, all of the designers and builders got together to celebrate (as seen in the picture below).
It was a big day in the history of Canada. The reason for their launch of the satellite was to investigate the geographic and properties of the topside ionosphere at altitudes of 1000 km. After about 500 days, Alouette-1 had failed because of an issue with the spin stability.
Today, Canada will celebrate 61 years of Alouette-1 being up in space. About three years after the launch of Alouette-1, the launch of Alouette-2 was made. Since the launch of Alouette-1, Canada has launched 37 active satellites into space. As of 2022, it was stated that Alouette-2 was still in space and in orbit.
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Photos:
https://spaceq.ca/tag/alouette-1/
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1962-049A
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