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Vela 1B
	Vela 1B
Operator	USAF
COSPAR ID	1963-039C
SATCAT no.	00692
Mission duration	6 months (planned)
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	TRW
Launch mass	150 kilograms (330 lb)
Power	90 W
Start of mission
Launch date	October 17, 1963, 02:24
Rocket	Atlas-LV3 Agena-D
Launch site	Cape Canaveral LC-13
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Highly Elliptical
Semi-major axis	115,746.0 kilometres (71,921.2 mi)
Perigee altitude	42,766.0 kilometres (26,573.6 mi)
Apogee altitude	175,984.2 kilometres (109,351.5 mi)
Inclination	28.7°
Period	6,531.6 minutes
Epoch	June 3, 2018
Instruments
	X-ray/Charged Particle
	Gamma ray/Charged Particle
	Neutron Detectors
	Vela ← Vela 1A Vela 2A →

Vela 1B was a military satellite developed to detect nuclear detonations to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the Soviet Union.

Launch

Vela 1B was launched on October 17, 1963, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, by an Atlas-Agena launch vehicle. Vela 1B was launched along with Vela 1A and with ERS-12.^[2]

Mission

Vela 1B was one of two spin-stabilized 134 kilograms (295 lb) satellites comprising the first launch in a series of 6 Vela launches. Their objectives were to monitor nuclear weapons explosions in space and to study X-rays, gamma-rays, neutrons, and charged particles as the satellites passed through interplanetary space, the bow shock, the magnetosheath, and the magnetotail. The satellite operated in either a real-time mode (one data frame/sec) or a memory store mode (one data frame every 256 seconds). The spacecraft was operated in the real-time mode about 40% of the time and in the store mode for the rest of the time until the next Vela launch. At this time, tracking priority was given to the new spacecraft, and the older spacecraft was operated in the store mode only. There had been less and less data coverage of these satellites with each succeeding launch.^[3]

Specifications

Height: 1.40 metres (4.6 ft)
Propulsion: BE-3A AKM
Stabilization: 120 rpm

References

^ N2YO.com. "VELA 1". N2YO.com. Retrieved June 3, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Wade, Mark. "Vela". Astronautix. Archived from the original on December 28, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
^ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. "Vela 1B". Retrieved June 3, 2018. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.