OGO 1

Launch data:

Description:

• The purpose of the OGO 1 spacecraft, the first of a series of six Orbiting Geophysical Observatories, was to conduct diversified geophysical experiments to obtain a better understanding of the earth as a planet and to develop and operate a standardized observatory-type satellite. OGO 1 consisted of a main body that was parallelepipedal in form, two solar panels, each with a solar-oriented experiment package (SOEP), two orbital plane experiment packages (OPEP) and six appendages EP-1 through EP-6 supporting the boom experiment packages.
• 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.
• Spacecraft systems included a communication and data handling system to store up to 128,000 bits per second.

Mission details:

• 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.
  
• Asteroid 2012 BX34 made a close approach to Earth in a 59023 x -80873 km x 80.18 deg hyperbolic orbit (C3 = 87.7 km**2/s**2) at 1525 UTC on Jan 27, 2012 over about 150W 56S. This is sufficiently above GEO altitude that it probably didn′t come too close to any satellites (the closest pass was to OGO 1 at 19000 km distance).