WRESAT

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Wresat (abbreviation for: Weapons Research Establishment Satellite) was the name of the first Australian satellite.

Wresat was launched on November 29, 1967 using a modified American rocket of the Redstone type from the spaceport at Woomera, South Australia, making Australia the fourth nation in the world (after the Soviet Union, United States and France) to launch a satellite into space. However, it must be noted that the Redstone booster (left over from the SPARTA program) was a gift from the USA.

Wresat weighed 45 kilograms and had the form of a cone with a length of 1.59 metres and a mouth diameter of 0.76 metres. It remained connected with the third rocket stage and possessed with it an overall length of 2.17 metres. Wresat circled the earth on a nearly polar course, until it reentered the atmosphere after 642 earth revolutions on 10 January 1968, over the Atlantic. The battery-operated satellite sent data during its first 73 orbits around the earth.