The US Accidentally Nuked Britain’s First Ever Satellite
Friendly fire, orbital down
On April 26th, 1962, a Thor-Delta rocket lifted off from the space center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Cheers broke out as the rocket lifted off, and national pride swelled across the Pond when it reached orbit. The rocket’s payload was Ariel 1, a satellite developed as a joint effort between the United States and Great Britain. The satellite was ultimately British, and the launch represented the first time a satellite had been launched into space that was not wholly owned by the United States or the Soviet Union. Ariel 1 made Great Britain the third nation in the world to put a satellite into space, and it stoked hopes that Britain would become a space power.
Ariel 1 weighed 136 lbs and was outfitted with solar panels and a tape recorder for data collection. The satellite was designed to collect radiation data and was meant to remain operational for a full year. Unfortunately, the satellite barely lasted two months.
Ariel 1 was Britain’s first satellite, and it was their Sputnik. In a stunning turn of events, Ariel 1 was blown out of the sky by the very people who had helped it put it into orbit.
