Mission type Technology Harvard designation 1965-096A Mission duration 111 days Inclination 34.3° Period 1.8 hours Last contact 28 November 1965 | SATCAT no. 1778 Launch date 26 November 1965 Inclination 34.3° Rocket Diamant | |
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Launch mass 42.0 kilograms (92.6 lb) Similar Prospero, Ōsumi, WRESAT, San Marco 1, Intasat | ||
Astérix, the first French satellite, was launched on November 26, 1965 by a Diamant A rocket from Hammaguir, Algeria. With Astérix, France became the sixth country to have an artificial satellite in orbit after: USSR (Sputnik 1, 1957), the United States (Explorer 1, 1958), the United Kingdom (Ariel 1, 1962), Canada (Alouette 1, 1962) and Italy (San Marco 1, 1964), and the third to launch a satellite on its own (the UK, Canada and Italy's satellites were launched on American rockets). The satellite was originally designated A-1, as the French Army's first satellite, but later renamed after the popular French comics character Astérix. Due to the relatively high altitude of its orbit, it is not expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere for several centuries.
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