Prospero X-3

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The Prospero X-3 satellite (official designation 05580 / 71093A) is the only satellite to be launched by a British rocket.

X-3 was launched on 28 October 1971 from Launch Area 5B (LA-5B) at Woomera, South Australia on a Black Arrow rocket, making Britain the sixth nation to place a satellite into orbit using a domestically developed launch vehicle (after the USSR, USA, France, Japan and China).

The satellite contains a single experiment to test solar cells. A tape recorder is also on board, which failed on 24 May 1973 after 730 plays.

As of 2006, radio transmissions from Prospero can still be heard on 137.560 MHz,[1] although it had officially been switched off in 1996 when the UK's Defence Research Establishment decommissioned their satellite tracking station at Lasham, Hampshire.

It is in a low Earth orbit with an expected lifetime of about 100 years.

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[edit] Technical data

Perigee/Apogee 531/1402 km
Inclination 82°
Period 104.4 min
Mass 66kg

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Coast, 2006/10/26, Series 2 Episode 1, BBC

[edit] See also

[edit] External links