Timeline of Earth science satellites

The Timeline of Earth science satellites shows, in chronological order, those successful satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

s with a program of Earth science

Earth science

Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...

. Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...

, while the first satellite ever launched, did not conduct Earth science. Explorer 1 was the first satellite to make an Earth science discovery when it found the Van Allen belts.

1950s

Satellite	Country	Date	Sponsor	Notes
Explorer 1	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1 February 1958	U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency	Decayed 31 May 1970. Discovered Van Allen belts.
Explorer 2 Explorer 2 Explorer 2 was to be a repeat of the Explorer 1 mission. However, due to a failure in the rocket during launch, the spacecraft did not reach orbit....	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	5 March 1958	U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard I	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	17 March 1958	U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Oldest artificial satellite in orbit.
Explorer 3 Explorer 3 Explorer 3 was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	26 March 1958	U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency	Decayed 28 June 1958.
Sputnik	Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....	27 April 1958	Korolev Design Bureau	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard TV-5	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	29 April 1958	U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Failed to orbit.
Sputnik 3 Sputnik 3 Sputnik 3 was a Soviet satellite launched on May 15, 1958 from Baikonur cosmodrome by a modified R-7/SS-6 ICBM. It was a research satellite to explore the upper atmosphere and the near space, and carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research....	Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....	15 May 1958	Korolev Design Bureau	Decayed 6 April 1960.
Vanguard SLV-1	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	28 May 1958	U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard SLV-2	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	26 June 1958	U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Failed to orbit.
Explorer 4 Explorer 4 Explorer 4 was a US satellite launched on July 26, 1958. It was instrumented by Dr. James van Allen's group. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency had initially planned two satellites for the purposes of studying the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	26 July 1958	U.S. DARPA	Measured electrons & protons in radiation belts. Also measured data on Operation Argus nuclear explosions.
Explorer 5 Explorer 5 Explorer 5 was a United States satellite with a weight of 17.24 kg.It launched atop a Jupiter-C rocket on August 24, 1958 from Launch Complex 5, but failed when the rocket's booster collided with its second stage after separation, causing the upper stage firing angle to be off.- References :...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	24 August 1958	U.S. DARPA	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard SLV-3	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	26 September 1958	U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Failed to orbit.
Beacon 1	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	23 October 1958	NASA/U.S. Army	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard II	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	17 February 1959	NASA/U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Still in orbit.
Vanguard SLV-5	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	14 April 1959	NASA	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard SLV-6	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	22 June 1959	NASA	Failed to orbit.
Explorer S-1	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	16 July 1959	NASA	Failed to orbit.
Explorer 6 Explorer 6 Explorer 6 was a United States satellite launched on August 7, 1959. It was a small, spheroidal satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation in the upper atmosphere, and the flux of micrometeorites...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	7 August 1959	Jet Propulsion Laboratory	Decayed 1 July 1961.
Beacon 2	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	15 August 1959	NASA/U.S. Navy	Failed to orbit.
Vanguard III	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	18 September 1959	U.S. Naval Research Laboratory	Still in orbit.
Explorer 7 Explorer 7 Explorer 7 was launched October 13, 1959 at 10:36 a.m. Eastern Time by a Juno II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to an orbit of 573 km by 1073 km and inclination of 50.27°. It was designed to measure solar x-ray and Lyman-alpha flux, trapped energetic particles, and heavy...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	13 October 1959	NASA	Still in orbit.

1960s

Satellite	Country	Date
Explorer 8 Explorer 8 Explorer 8 is a U.S. research satellite launched on November 3, 1960. It confirmed the existence of a helium layer in the upper atmosphere....	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	3 November 1960
Explorer 9 Explorer 9 Explorer 9, known as S-56A before launch, was an American satellite which was launched in 1961 to study the density and composition of the upper thermosphere and lower exosphere. It was a reflight of the failed S-56 mission, and consisted of a , balloon which was deployed into a medium Earth orbit...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	16 February 1961
Explorer S-56a	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	25 February 1961
Explorer 10 Explorer 10 Explorer 10 was an American Earth-orbital satellite that investigated Earth's magnetic fields and nearby plasma...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	25 March 1961
Explorer 11	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	27 April 1961
Explorer 12	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	16 August 1961
Explorer 13	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	25 August 1961
Kosmos 3 Kosmos 3 Kosmos 3 , also known as 2MS #1 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 13 was a scientific research and technology demonstration satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1962. It was the third satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the second spacecraft to be launched as part of...	Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....	24 April 1962
Ariel 1 Ariel 1 Ariel 1, also known as UK-1 and S-55, was the first British satellite, and the first satellite in the Ariel programme. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the Soviet Union and the USA...	United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	26 April 1962
Kosmos 5 Kosmos 5 Kosmos 5 , also known as 2MS #2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 15 was a scientific research and technology demonstration satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1962. It was the fifth satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the third spacecraft to be launched as part of...	Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....	28 May 1962
Kosmos 8 Kosmos 8 Kosmos 8 , also known as DS-K-8 #1 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 18 was a technology demonstration satellite which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1962. It was the eighth satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the third spacecraft launched as part of the DS programme...	Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....	18 August 1968
Alouette 1 Alouette 1 Alouette 1 was Canada's first satellite, and the first satellite constructed by a country other than the USSR or the United States. Occasionally, Alouette 1 is misrepresented as the third satellite successfully put in orbit, rather than being from the third country to have one of its own in space,...	Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	29 September 1962
TAVE	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	29 September 1962
Explorer 14 Explorer 14 Explorer 14 is a spin-stabilized, solar-cell-powered spacecraft instrumented to measure cosmic-ray particles, trapped particles, solar wind protons, and magnetospheric and interplanetary magnetic fields. A 16-channel PFM/PM time-division multiplexed telemeter was used. The time required to sample...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	2 October 1962
Explorer 15	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	27 October 1962
Explorer 900	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	16 December 1962

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