Satellite, Ariel 2

This is a full-scale mock-up of Ariel-2, the second satellite in an international cooperative venture between the United States and the United Kingdom, to provide data on the Earth's ionosphere and radiation from space. The spacecraft was designed by the Goddard Space Flight Center and built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The experiments which it carried were provided by scientists at universities in the UK. The satellite was launched on a Scout rocket on March 27, 1964; its orbit decayed on November 18, 1967. It provided valuable data on the distribution of ozone in the upper atmosphere. Radio measurements from the spacecraft also helped establish the level of general galactic radio noise in the region of 1 MHz. The artifact was reconstructed out of a combination of left-over parts and mock-ups and transferred from NASA in 1975.