Explorer-1

rime Rime may refer to: *Rime ice, ice that forms when water droplets in fog freeze to the outer surfaces of objects, such as trees Rime is also an alternative spelling of "rhyme" as a noun: *Syllable rime, term used in the study of phonology in ling ...

'', also known as E1P and Electra, was a

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...

-class

picosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

built by the Space Science and Engineering Laboratory (SSEL) at

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...

. It was launched aboard a Taurus-XL rocket from

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...

, California on 4 March 2011, but failed to achieve orbit after the rocket malfunctioned. As part of NASA's ELaNA program, E1P was to be launched along with NASA's Glory satellite, Kentucky Space's KySat-1 and the University of Colorado-Boulder's

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...

CubeSats. E1P was a reflight mission of ''

Explorer 1 Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites the previous year; the Soviet Union's ...

'', the first

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

satellite, using modern technology including a geiger tube donated by

James Van Allen James Alfred Van Allen (September 7, 1914August 9, 2006) was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa. He was instrumental in establishing the field of magnetospheric research in space. The Van Allen radiation belts were named aft ...

. The name of the satellite was also adopted from Van Allen, who referred to the satellite as ''Explorer-1 Prime'' prior to his death in 2006. It was originally intended to be launched in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launch of ''Explorer 1''. If it had been successful, E1P would have been Montana's first successful launch of a satellite after the loss of SSEL's MEROPE in 2006. There was a spare, Explorer-1 Prime Unit 2, that was launched with NPP. The Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) suspects that the M-Cubed CubeSat, a joint project run by MXL and JPL, became magnetically conjoined to Explorer-1 Prime Unit 2, a second CubeSat released at the same time, via strong onboard magnets used for passive attitude control (see:

Magnetorquer A magnetorquer or magnetic torquer (also known as a torque rod) is a satellite system for attitude control, detumbling, and stabilization built from electromagnetic coils. The magnetorquer creates a magnetic dipole that interfaces with an ambient ma ...

), after deploying on October 28, 2011. This is the first non-destructive latching of two satellites.

References

Student satellites CubeSats Satellite launch failures Spacecraft launched in 2011 Picosatellites {{US-spacecraft-stub

See also

References