The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

38 Ariel
Ariel
A series of six British satellites launched by NASA. The
first four were devoted to studying the ionosphere, with
the remaining two devoted to X-ray astronomy and
cosmic-ray studies. Ariel 5 was one of the earliest X-ray
astronomy satellites and involved a British-American
collaboration. The Science Research Council managed
the project for the United Kingdom and the Goddard
Space Flight Center for the United States. Several catalogs
of X-ray sources stemmed from its observations,
which continued until the spring of 1980. (See table,
“Ariel Missions.”)
ARISE (Advanced Radio Interferometry between
Space and Earth)
A mission consisting of one or possibly two 25-m radio
telescopes in highly elliptical Earth orbit. The telescope(s)
would make observations in conjunction with a large
number of radio telescopes on the ground, using very
long baseline interferometry to obtain high resolution
(10-microarcsecond) images of the most energetic astronomical
phenomena in the Universe. ARISE’s top science
goals would be to image active galactic nuclei (AGN)
to learn more about the supermassive black holes at their
hearts and to study the formation of energetic jets on
scales as small as 100 times the size of the black hole event
horizons. Particular targets would be gamma-ray blazars—
extremely active AGN that the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory has shown emit gamma rays from the very
region that can be imaged at radio wavelengths by ARISE.
The telescope would be pointed at so-called water megamaser
disks in nearby AGN to measure the motions of
molecular material within one light-year of the central
black hole, thus “weighing” the black hole with unprecedented
accuracy. ARISE has been selected for study under
the New Mission Concepts for Astrophysics NASA
Research Announcement.
Ariel Missions
Armstrong, Neil Alden (1930–)
A veteran American astronaut and the first human to set
foot upon the Moon. Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Armstrong
received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from
Purdue University and an M.S. from the University of
Southern California. He entered the Navy and flew as a
naval aviator from 1949 to 1952. In 1955, he joined
NACA’s (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautic’s)
Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory and later
transferred to the High Speed Flight Station at Edwards
Air Force Base as a civilian aeronautical test research
pilot for NACA and NASA. Among the aircraft he
tested was the X-15 rocket plane. 285 He became an astronaut
in 1962 and subsequently commanded the Gemini
8 and Apollo 11 missions. On May 6, 1968, he had
a narrow escape when the Lunar Landing Research
Vehicle he was flying went out of control and he was
forced to eject; he landed by parachute and walked away
uninjured. Upon returning from the Moon, Armstrong
served as deputy associate administrator for the office of
Advanced Research and Technology at NASA Headquarters.
In 1971, he left NASA to become a professor
of aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati,
where he taught until 1981. Since then he has
been in the business world and is currently chairman of
EDO Corp. 44
Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA)
An organization formed by the U.S. Army on February 1,
1956, at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, taking
over what was previously the Guided Missile Development
Division, to develop the Redstone and Jupiter ballistic
missiles. Its first commander was Major General
John Mendaris. In July 1960, ABMA’s buildings and
staff, including Wernher von Braun, were transferred to
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which remains in
the midst of the Redstone Arsenal.
Spacecraft Date
Launch
Vehicle Site Orbit Mass (kg)
Ariel 1 Apr. 26, 1962 Delta Cape Canaveral 398 × 1,203 km × 53.8° 60
Ariel 2 Mar. 27, 1964 Scout X-3 Wallops Island 287 × 1,349 km × 51.7° 68
Ariel 3 May 5, 1967 Scout A Vandenberg 499 × 604 km × 80.6° 90
Ariel 4 Dec. 11, 1971 Scout B Vandenberg 476 × 592 km × 82.0° 100
Ariel 5 Oct. 15, 1974 Scout B San Marco 504 × 549 km × 2.9° 129
Ariel 6 Jun. 2, 1979 Scout D Wallops Island 372 × 383 km × 55.0° 154