IE

Other Designations: Ionosphere Explorer. Class: Earth. Type: Ionosphere. Destination: Medium Earth Orbit. Nation: USA. Agency: NASA.

Ionospheric research.

Typical orbit: 855 km x 1001 km at 80 degrees inclination. Mass: 44 kg (97 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Scout X-4.

IE Chronology

1964 August 25 - Explorer 20 - Program: Explorer. Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Scout X-4. Mass: 44 kg (97 lb). Perigee: 857 km (532 mi). Apogee: 999 km (620 mi). Inclination: 79.90 deg. Period: 103.60 min.
Ionospheric research. Spacecraft engaged in research and exploration of the upper atmosphere or outer space (US Cat B).

Bibliography and Further Reading

McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited since Sputnik. Accessed at: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.

USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.

JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.

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