Oct 13 1959

From The Space Library

EXPLORER VIII, the seventh and last U.S.-IGY earth satellite, and now under direction of NASA with the Army as executive agent, launched into an earth orbit by modified Army Juno II.

By late December, data from the satellite indicated possible relationships between solar events and geomagnetic storms, and revealed information about trapped radiation and cosmic rays near the earth. With launching of this ABMA-JPL project, all experiments for the U.S.-IGY space program had been successfully placed into orbit.

USAF Bold Orion launched from B-17 near Patrick AFB passed within 4 miles of EXPLORER VI at an altitude of 160 miles in test firing.

H. Rept. 1191, Committee on Science and Astronautics, “Boron High-Energy Fuels” published.