Explorer 6

Launch Successful

Launch Details

Date: 7 Aug 1959, 02:24 pm UTC

Rocket: Thor Able III (Thor)

Provider: United States Air Force

Mission

Type: Earth Science

Orbit: Elliptical Orbit

Pad: Space Launch Complex 17A, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Mission Description

Explorer 6 was an American satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation and the flux of micrometeorites. It also tested a scanning device designed for photographing the Earth's cloud cover, and transmitted the first pictures of Earth from a satellite.