Alouette 2 was a Canadian research satellite launched at 04:48 UTC on November 29, 1965, by a

Thor Agena Thor-Agena was a series of orbital launch vehicles. The launch vehicles used the Douglas-built Thor first stage and the Lockheed-built Agena second stages. They are thus cousins of the more-famous Thor-Deltas, which founded the Delta rocket ...

rocket with Explorer 31 from the Western test range at

Vandenberg AFB Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from th ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was (like its predecessor

Alouette 1 ''Alouette 1'' is a deactivated Canadian satellite that studied the ionosphere. Launched in 1962, it was Canada's first satellite, and the first satellite constructed by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. Canada w ...

, and Explorer 31) designed to explore the

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...

History

The name "Alouette" came from the French for "

skylark ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands. Further, at least two additional species are ...

" and from the title of a popular French-Canadian folk song. Alouette 2 was also known as ISIS-X since it was the first in a series of ISIS satellites: International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies. The next one was called ISIS-I. The Alouette 2 was built up from the identical backup satellite to

. It had many more experiments and more sophisticated support systems than the earlier satellite. It lasted for 10 years, being terminated on August 1, 1975.

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, was the prime contractor; Havilland Aircraft of

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, served as associate contractor.

Post mission

After the ''Alouette 2'' was launched, the upper stage of the rocket used to launch the satellite became a derelict

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

that would continue to orbit Earth for many years. , the upper stage remains in orbit. The satellite itself became a derelict after August 1975. It too remains in earth orbit .

References

External links

1965-098A
at

NSSDC The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) serves as the permanent archive for NASA space science mission data. "Space science" includes astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and planetary and lunar science. As ...

CBC Archives: Launching the Alouette 2 satellite
Satellites of Canada Derelict satellites orbiting Earth Spacecraft launched in 1965 Geospace monitoring satellites {{Canada-spacecraft-stub