ATS-1 - Credit: NASA. 15,206 bytes. 244 x 319 pixels.

During its 18 year lifetime, ATS-1 examined spin stabilisation techniques, investigated the geostationary environment, and performed several communications experiments. Its VHF experiment tested the ability to act as a link between ground stations and aircraft, demonstrated collection of meteorological data from remote terminals, and evaluated the feasibility of using VHF signals for navigation. It also transmitted educational programs and provided health, research, and community services to the US and several Pacific island countries, including the Cook, Mariana, Marshall and Caroline Islands, West and American Samoa, Melanesia, New Zealand, and Australia. The mission also provided the first full-Earth cloud cover images. Spacecraft: Aluminum structure, drum solar array providing 180W BOL, 2 6 Ah NiCd batteries, spin stabilisation, hydrazine stationkeeping system, nutation damper, sun sensors (2), accelerometers (2). Payload: Ion detectors, spectrometers, camera, C-band communications experiment (also used for international TV broadcasts) and VHF communications package

Design Life: 3 years. Total Length: 1.3 m. Maximum Diameter: 1.4 m. Total Mass: 352 kg.

Applications Technology Satellite; communications and meteorological experiments.

• 2 - McDowell, Jonathan, The United Nations Registry of Space Objects, Harvard University, 1997. HTML when accessed: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/un/un.html
• 6 - JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. HTML when accessed: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html
• 279 - McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. HTML when accessed: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html