Timz
August 6, 2026, 10:59pm
1
Did such things actually exist then? Gathering useful info and transmitting it to the ground? Or could it be a spy satellite?
Apparently, they were astronomical observatories. Not for the visible spectrum, but rather UV and X-ray. There were 4 launched, but only 2 were successful.
The Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) satellites were a series of four American space observatories launched by NASA between 1966 and 1972, managed by NASA Chief of Astronomy Nancy Grace Roman. These observatories, including the first successful space telescope, provided the first high-quality observations of many objects in ultraviolet light. Although two OAO missions were failures, the success of the other two increased awareness within the astronomical community of the benefits of sp T...
Yes, they did. Check out this Wikipedia list.
The publicized ones which orbited by the early '60s were primarily studying the upper atmosphere, the Earth’s magnetic field, cosmic radiation, etc. And, by then there were also weather satellites .
The timeline of first Earth observation satellites shows, in chronological order, those successful Earth observation satellites, that is, Earth satellites with a program of Earth science. Sputnik 1, while the first satellite ever launched, did not conduct Earth science. Explorer 1 was the first satellite to make an Earth science discovery when it found the Van Allen belts.