Echo 1 and Echo 2 Balloon Satellites
The first flying body of this type was Echo 1, which was launched into a 1,600-kilometer (990 mi) high orbit on August 12, 1960 by the United States. It originally had a spherical shape measuring 30 meters (98 ft), with a thin metal-coated plastic shell made of Mylar. It served for testing as a "passive" communication and geodetic satellite. Its international COSPAR number was 6000901 (9th satellite launched in 1960, 1st component).
One of the first radio contacts using the satellite was successful at a distance of nearly 80,000 kilometers (50,000 mi) (between the east coast of the US and California). By the time Echo 1 burned up in 1968, the measurements of its orbit by several dozen earth stations had improved our knowledge of the precise shape of the planet by nearly a factor of ten.
Its successor was the similarly built Echo 2 (1964 to about 1970). This satellite circled the Earth about 400 kilometers (250 mi) lower, not at an angle of 47° like that of Echo 1, but in a polar orbit with an average angle of 81°. This enabled radio contact and measurements to be made at higher latitudes. Taking part in the Echo orbit checks to analyze disturbances in its orbit and in the Earth's gravitational field were thirty to fifty professional earth stations, as well as around two hundred amateur astronomers across the planet in "Moonwatch" stations; these contributed around half of all sightings.
Read more about this topic: Balloon Satellite
Famous quotes containing the words echo, balloon and/or satellites:
“As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“When I am on a stage, I am the focus of thousands of eyes and it gives me strength. I feel that something, some energy, is flowing from the audience into me. I actually feel stronger because of these waves. Now when the play’s done, the eyes taken away, I feel just as if a circuit’s been broken. The power is switched off. I feel all gone and empty inside of me—like a balloon that’s been pricked and the air’s let out.”
—Lynn Fontanne (1887–1983)
“To the Japanese, Portugal and Russia are neutral enemies, England and America are belligerent enemies, and Germany and her satellites are friendly enemies. They draw very fine distinctions.”
—Jerome Cady, U.S. screenwriter, and Lewis Milestone. Peter Voroshevski (Howard Clinton?)