 Redstone Sparta rocket with WRESAT mounted on top (the black cone),c. November, 1967 | |
| COSPAR ID | 1967-118A |
|---|---|
| SATCATno. | 03054 |
| Mission duration | Data: 73 orbits Total: 642 orbits Total: ~42 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Weapons Research Establishment |
| Launch mass | 45 kilograms (99 lb) 72.5 kilograms (160 lb) (with the third stage)[1] |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 29 November 1967, 04:49 (1967-11-29UTC04:49) UTC[2] |
| Rocket | Sparta |
| Launch site | WoomeraLA-8 |
| End of mission | |
| Decay date | 10 January 1968 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee altitude | 169 km[3] |
| Apogee altitude | 1245 km[3] |
| Inclination | 83.3° |
| Period | 99 minutes[3] |
WRESAT, orWeapons Research Establishment Satellite, wasAustralia's first satellite. It was named after its designer, theWeapons Research Establishment. WRESAT was launched on 29 November 1967 using a modified AmericanRedstone rocket with two upper stages, known as aSparta, from theWoomera Test Range in South Australia. The Sparta (left over from the joint Australian-US-UK Sparta program) was donated by theUnited States.
After this launch, Australia became the seventh nation to have a satellite and the third nation to launch from its own territory,[4] after theSoviet Union and theUnited States (the UK's, Canada's and Italy's satellites were also launched on American rockets, unlike the FrenchAstérix, which launched on anindigenous rocket out ofAlgeria[5]).
WRESAT was a cone-shaped satellite weighing 45 kilograms (99 lb), with a length of 1.59 m (5 ft 3 in) and a diameter of 0.76 m (2 ft 6 in). It remained connected to the rocket's third stage and had an overall length of 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in). It carried upper atmospheric radiation measurement experiments designed in theUniversity of Adelaide. The first stage fell into theSimpson Desert, but the second's reentry over theGulf of Carpentaria was unobserved.[6]
WRESAT, which bore an early forward-boundingkangaroo logo, operated in a nearly polar orbit and reentered the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean on 10 January 1968 after 642 revolutions. The battery-operated satellite successfully sent back data toNASA and Australian ground tracking stations during its first 73 revolutions of the Earth.[7]
Today, this achievement is rarely remembered in Australian textbooks or collections of major 20th century news stories and so remains largely unknown to the general Australian populace.[citation needed]
