Alouette I and Canada among the satellite builders

With the Alouette launch, Canada became the third nation, after the Russian and American superpowers, to design and build its own satellite. Alouette I was launched on a Thor-Agena B rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on an 80-degree-inclination orbit, at an altitude of 1000 km. (Official local date of the launch is September 28, 10:30 pm, PDT.) Designed with a one-year lifetime, the topside sounder will transmit useful data for over 10 years. It studies the ionosphere, the electrically-charged layer of the upper atmosphere that can affect long-distance radio transmission. Alouette II is launched on November 29, 1965.