- Alouette 2
Alouette 2 was a
Canadian research satellite launched at 4h48UTC onNovember 29 ,1965 by aThor Agena rocket with Explorer 31 from the Western test range atVandenberg AFB inCalifornia . It was (like its predecessorAlouette 1 , and Explorer 31) designed to explore theionosphere .The name "Alouette" came from the French for "skylark" and from the title of a popular
French-Canadian folk song. Alouette II 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 calledISIS-I .The Alouette 2 was built up from the identical backup satellite to
Alouette 1 . It had many more experiments and more sophisticated support systems than the earlier satellite. It lasted for 10 years, being terminated onAugust 1 ,1975 .RCA Victor of
Montreal was the prime contractor.External links
* [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1965-098A 1965-098A] at
NSSDC
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technology/space/clips/426/ CBC Archives: Launching the Alouette 2 satellite]
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