I think it is time for a new tire!
WRESAT, Australia’s first satellite
The Weapons Research Establishment Satellite launched on November 29, 1967 into a 99 minute, 198×1252 km eccentric elliptical polar orbit with 83.3° inclination using a modified surplus American Redstone Sparta rocket from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia. Australia became the seventh nation to have an Earth satellite, and the fourth to launch a satellite from its own territory. The physics experiments on board were predominantly for upper atmospheric research and designed by the University of Adelaide, derived from experiments flown on earlier australian sounding rockets: Solar UV (1050 Å-1660 Å), Solar UV (2500 Å), Geocoronal Hydrogen Lyman Alpha, Solar X-Ray (8 Å) ionization chamber. Additionally, there was a small telescope with a lithium fluoride lens which could measure the faint ultraviolet halo (GeoCoronal) that surrounds the Earth at night. WRESAT was cone shaped with the weight 45 kg, length of 1.59 m and a mouth diameter of 0.76 m. It remained connected with the third rocket stage and possessed an overall length of 2.17 m. WRESAT later reentered the atmosphere after 642 revolutions on 10 January 1968, over the Atlantic Ocean. The battery-operated satellite sent telemetry during its first five days in orbit.
Space historian Kerrie Dougherty said the United States brought 10 Redstone rockets to Australia for testing and because all nine launches went to plan, they had one left over.
"The Americans didn't want to take it back to the US because it was essentially an obsolete missile, so they just didn't want to spend the money to take it back," she said.
"So the offer was made to Australia: 'If you want to build a satellite, we'll let you have this rocket to launch this satellite'."
Ms Dougherty said with US personnel set to leave Woomera at the end of 1967, Australia had just 11 months to complete the project!
