1. Introduction THE Alouette satellite (1962 Beta Alpha One) was launched
2. 0605 GMT September 29,1962, from Vandenburg AirForce Base, Calif, into a nearly circular orbit with an inclination of 80.5° and 1000 km above the earth. The satellite was designed and constructed in Canada at the Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment and launched into orbit on a Thor-Agena B.
3. In the first ten months of its operation, the satellite received and executed over 10,000 commands in 2000 hr of operation of the four experiments aboard. In this time,