Pegasus 3

Pegasus 3 was a Pegasus spacecraft, consisting of 1,450 kilograms (3,200 lb) of instruments, attached to the S-IV upper stage of the carrier rocket which had placed it into orbit.[1] It had a total mass of 10,323 kilograms (22,758 lb),[2] and was equipped with two sets of micrometeoroid detection panels, and a radio for tracking and returning data.[1] The panels were 29 metres (95 ft) long, and equipped with 116 individual detectors.[3]

Pegasus 3 was launched atop a Saturn I rocket, serial number SA-10,[4] flying from Launch Complex 37B at the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. The launch occurred at 13:00:00 UTC on 30 July 1965.[5] Following launch, Pegasus 3 was given the COSPAR designation 1965-060A, whilst NORAD assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 01467.[6]

Pegasus 3 was a secondary payload on the carrier rocket, which was carrying a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft, Apollo 105 or BP-9A,[5] as part of a series of configuration tests for the Apollo program. The Apollo boilerplate acted as a payload fairing for the Pegasus spacecraft, which was stored inside what would have been the Service Module of a functional spacecraft. Upon reaching orbit, the boilerplate Command and Service modules were jettisoned.[1]

Pegasus 3 was operated in a low Earth orbit. On 3 September 1965 it was catalogued as being in an orbit with a perigee of 516 kilometers (279 nmi) and an apogee of 536 kilometers (289 nmi), inclined at 51.6 degrees to the equator and with a period of 95.15 minutes.[7] Once in orbit, the panels were deployed to detect micrometeoroid impacts. Experiment results were returned to Earth by radio.[1] The spacecraft operated until 29 August 1968, and subsequently remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 4 August 1969.[7] It had originally only been expected to operate for 720 days.

• 1965 in spaceflight