ISIS (satellite)

ISIS 1 (1969-009A) was launched at 6h43 UTC[3] on January 30, 1969, by a Delta rocket at the Western test range at Vandenberg AFB in California.[4]

Unlike the Alouette satellites, the ISIS had complex navigational equipment and a tape recorder to record some experiments when they were out of communications range and play back the results when the satellites came over Canada again.[1] Some other experiments were not recorded but data was sent in over several stations around the globe. In total it conducted 10 experiments.

ISIS 2 (1971-024A) was launched at 2h53 UTC[5] on April 1, 1971, on a Delta rocket also from the Western test range at Vandenberg AFB in California.[6] Due to budget constraints, the design of ISIS 2 was largely similar to that of ISIS I. The main difference was the addition of two experiments designed to study atmospheric optical emissions, including a photometer. This allowed images to be taken for the first time of an Aurora Borealis as seen from above.[7] James Gosling wrote some of the software to analyze data from ISIS 2, as a high school student working for the University of Calgary physics department.[7][8]

On March 13, 1984, both ISIS 1 and ISIS 2 were loaned to Japan's Communications Research Laboratory, which continued to operate the satellites until 1990, when they were shut down due to deterioration of battery capacity.[9]

• Alouette 1
• Alouette 2

• ISIS program from the Canadian Space Agency
• ISIS Satellite program
• ISIS-I at NSSDC (1969-009A)
• ISIS-II at NSSDC (1971-024A)