OGO 1

---

General

Designation	00879 / 64054A
Launch date	5 Sep 1964
Country of origin	United States
Mission	Scientific: magnetosphere study
Perigee/Apogee	4930/144824 km
Inclination	40.7°
Period	3841.9 min
Launch vehicle	Atlas Agena B
Launch site	Cape Canaveral

OGO I carried 20 experiments, more than any previous satellite. The spacecraft's highly elliptical orbit was planned to permit correlated investigations of geophysical and solar phenomena in the Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere, and in interplanetary space.

Two experiment booms failed to deploy properly, however, and one of these booms obscured the horizon scanner's view of Earth. As a result, spacecraft attitude could not be Earth oriented and OGO I remained spin stabilized at 5 rpm. The solar panels were turned to a more favorable sun angle and all 20 experiments were able to provide data.

OGO 1, together with data from Explorer 21, has indicated the source of much of the Van Allen belt's high-energy radiation as the solar wind - entering the magnetosphere through weak field lines in the magnetosphere's tail on the side of the Earth opposite the sun.

---

End of life

Decay

10 Aug 1980 or 29 Aug 2020

Technical data

---

---

Specifications

Prime contractor	TRW
Platform	"streetcar" design
Mass at launch	523 kg
Payload mass	95 kg
Dimension	18 x 6 m
Solar array	32000 solar cells + nickel-cadmium batteries
Stabilization	3-axis
DC power
Design lifetime	1 year

Spacecraft systems included a communication and data handling system to store up to 128,000 bits per second.

---