Orbiting Observatory

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 13

Orbiting Observatory

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) CAPE KENNEDY, June 6. The O.G.O.—the most experiment-pack-ed United States scientific satellite yet—is scheduled for launching today into a vast, lopsided orbit where it can take a close look at both the earth and the sun. The spidery satellite will be aimed at an orbital path ranging from 170 to 76,000 miles above the earth. It is to have an Atlas-Agena booster. The O.G.O.—which stands

for orbiting geophysical observatory—is equipped to perform 21 complex experiments which scientists hope will tell them more about the relationship between the earth and the sun.

Among its weird array of antennas, solar panels and other appendages are instruments to study solar wind and flares, radiation belt particles, magnetic field disturbances, ionisation, aurora events and variations in atmospheric density. The 0.G.0. looks as strange as some of its experiments sound. Nose-to-tail, it mea-

sures 54 feet. Its wingspan is 20 feet and it weighs 11351 b. Its body is a six-foot box containing electronic gear. The O-G.O. will carry more scientific instruments than any previous United States satellite. The data it sends back to earth will, among other things, help scientists determine how to overcome the problems in space communications brought about by solar storms.

The information also will be compared with that received from two previous 0.G.0.5, which provided more than 150,000 hours of data. The 0.G.0. w’as to have been launched a week ago. However, the rescheduled Gemini IX launching tied up tracking stations around the world and the 0.G.0. had to wait.