Explorer 17

Explorer 17 was a satellite of the U.S., was successfully launched on April 3, 1963 as part of the Explorer program. The satellite has been also referred to as atmosphere A Explorer ( AE A).

Start

The 185 kg satellite was launched on April 3, 1963 at 1:55 UTC clock with a rocket of the type B delta from the launch pad LC - 17 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Mission

Mission objective was to explore the upper layers of the atmosphere. This external influences the Earth's atmosphere does not affect the research results, the instruments were sealed.

Instruments

Were included four pressure gauge for measuring the neutron flux, two spectrometer to determine the particle concentration as well as two Langmuir probes for measuring the ion concentration and the electron temperature.

Due to the failure of the batteries on July 10, 1963 could be used only three of the four gauge. While both probes continued to work, dropped out of the spectrometer, the other only worked intermittently.

Whereabouts of the satellite

After 1325 days was initiated on 24 November 1966, the lowering of the orbit, so that the satellite could burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

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