Miranda, also known as X-4, is a British satellite in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

. The satellite was launched in March 1974 as an engineering test bed of technologies in orbit. Miranda was named after a character in the Shakespeare play '' The Tempest'', just like Prospero (spacecraft) and

Ariel 1 Ariel 1 (also known as UK-1 and S-55), was the first British satellite, and the first satellite in the Ariel programme. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the Soviet Union and the United Stat ...

Design

Operational

Miranda used propane

cold gas thruster A cold gas thruster (or a cold gas propulsion system) is a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a cold gas thruster does not house any ...

s for attitude control.

Sensors

It contained a Canopus star sensor to determine the reflectivity and interference caused by the propane.

Launch

Miranda was due to be launched by a British

Black Arrow Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW, was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971, all launched from the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia. Its final fl ...

rocket, but due to the project's cancellation the payload was instead launched on the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

-owned rocket Scout.

Mission

Designed as an engineering test bed for various technologies in orbit, Miranda carried various sensors and detectors.

Current status

The satellite is now non-active, but remains in low Earth orbit.

Notes

References

* * * Spacecraft launched in 1974 Satellites orbiting Earth Science and technology in the United Kingdom Space programme of the United Kingdom Satellites of the United Kingdom {{UK-spacecraft-stub