Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 1ft 1in. x 1ft 1in. x 2ft 2in., 35lb. (33.02 x 33.02 x 66.04cm, 15.9kg)
Materials:
Mixed metals, solar cells
This is a payload model for the Explorer S-46 satellite, based upon a fully instrumented developmental model in the collection provided by the University of Iowa. The satellite would have carried instrumentation designed to study the electron and proton fluxes in the Earth's Van Allen Radiation belts over an extended period of time. After launch from Cape Canaveral on March 23, 1960, the upper stage of the Juno 2 vehicle did not ignite, and so the payload never achieved orbit. It was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in May 1974.
Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
