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The Etalon satellite belongs to the Russian space program. This is a geophysical satellite launched to study the shape of the earth and the determination of exact location of the geological points. It was launched on January 10, 1989 from Baikonur along with two other GLONASS satellites. It is launched at an inclination angle of 64.9 degrees. The expected lifetime for this satellite is about hundreds of years. It orbits the earth in a circular orbit. The shape of the satellite is spherical with a mass of 1415 kg and it has numerous laser reflectors in it. The mission is to determine the terrestrial frame and earth rotation parameters. This satellite is a passive satellite with an instrumentation called as retro-reflector array. The retro-filter array consists of different types of cube corners. With the help of this satellite Russia had developed three laser stations at Ternopol, Yevpatoria and Maydanak. These stations are used to provide laser ranging services to large areas. Apart from Russia, three other countries are also using this satellite for laser ranging services.

NAVSAT stands for Navy Navigational Satellite System, also known as TRANSIT system was send by the United States Navy. This was the first satellite launched for the purpose of navigation. On October 4, 1957 after the launch of Sputnik, the NAVSAT was launched into space. This satellite was developed in Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The prototype for this satellite is TRANSIT 1A which had failed to reach the orbit. The orbits of the TRANSIT satellites were selected in such a manner to cover the entire earth. These orbits are crossed over the poles and were spread out at the equator. The NAVSAT system was used to provide accurate location information to ballistic missile submarines. The secondary mission of this satellite is to transmit encrypted messages. This system was made no longer in use by the Global Positioning System. It is completely ceased from its navigation service in 1996. After ceasing the navigation services these satellites are used as space borne mailboxes and also as the Navy’s Ionospheric Monitoring System.

Sina- 1 is the first Iranian artificial satellite launched on October 28th, 2005 from the plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia. The satellite was launched from a Russian cosmos 3M rocket as a joint project between Iran and Russia. The launch makes Iran the 43rd country to possess its own satellites. The purpose of Sina- 1 is to take pictures of Iran and monitor natural disasters in the earthquake- prone nation. With a three year life-time, it has high resolution precision is about 50 meters (yards). It orbits the earth for some 14 times a day from an altitude around 1000 km and with proper controllers, it can point their cameras as they wish. Sina- 1 weighs 170 kilogram (375- pound) was built by the Russian company, polyot. It has a telecommunication system and cameras that would be used for monitoring Iran’s agriculture and natural resources. It could also be deployed after disasters such as earthquakes. Sina- 1 shared the ride with other satellites from china, Russia, and Europe.

This satellite was an interplanetary satellite sent to exploit the moon. It was launched on 6th December 1958 from the Atlantic Missile Range by a Juno II rocket. The spacecraft was designed by the Army and the NASA engineers and it is the third intended lunar probe. It weighs about six kilogram and its length is about 1.67 feet. The payload includes two Geiger counters and a camera trigger mechanisms. The main mission is to explore the unrevealed mystery of the moon and to learn the structure and components of the moon. The launch of Pioneer 3 was failed due to technical fault in the launch vehicle at its first stage. Due to this problem the spacecraft did not achieve the escape velocity. But the probe reached an altitude of 102,332 kilometer. The only satisfactory news is that the probe had discovered a second radiation belt around Earth. This radiation belt is called as Van Allen Radiation belt.

The Greenhouse Gases Observing satellite or GOSAT, also known as lbuki (meaning breath in Japanese) is an Earth Observation Satellite and was launched on January 23, 2009 from Tanegashima Space Center. The GOSAT was developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration agency (JAXA) along with Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and National Institute for Environmental Studies. It is the world’s first satellite to observe global greenhouse gases from space. The impact of greenhouse gases on earth has been more critical in the last few decades. If the situation is unchecked, then the temperature is said to increase by 6 degree Celsius by 2100, and the risk of more extreme climate phenomena such as droughts, heat waves, and floods is expected to increase. The GOSAT’s main objective is to carefully monitor changes in the effects of greenhouse gases without overlooking minute changes so that it can contribute to our future. Its strength of high precision sensor and about 56,000 observation points helps to acquire detailed data on greenhouse gases that have not previously been accurately measured. The IBUKI project is an essential mission for the future living in Earth

The first successful satellite launched into the space by the U.S.A is Explorer 1. This satellite was sent to space on January 31, 1957 from the site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This space program was started against the success of Soviet Union’s sputnik launch. The success of explorer 1 was obtained after a series of failures in the attempt to launch a satellite. The satellite was operated by an elite panel of engineers belonging to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the direction of Dr. William H. Pickering. The engineers behind this success are German rocket engineers who immigrated into United States after the end of World War II. This launch was the first step taken by the United States in the space race with the Soviet Union. The spacecraft is equipped with a Geiger-Muller Tube, to detect the cosmic rays, protons, electrons in the space. There are five temperature sensors used to determine the existing conditions. It also consists of an acoustic detector and a wire grid detector. After this successful launch many advanced level Explorer series were sent to space.

This was the first satellite launched into space by Indian launch vehicle named as Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV). Rohini is the name given to a series of satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organization. This series consists of four satellites out of which three satellites were successfully launched into space. The Rohini 1A was the first satellite to be launched by Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) on 10th August 1979. It weighs about thirty five kilograms and sent data on the fourth stage performance and ranging. After this failure Rohini 1B was launched into space on 18th July 1980. This launch of Satellite Launch Vehicle was a success. The satellite reached the orbit and provided data on the fourth stage. Then Rohini 2 was launched into space on May 31, 1981. It was a partial success as the satellite did not reach the intended height and thus it stayed in the orbit for 9 days. After this success Rohini 3 was launched on April 17, 1983. This launch was a great success and orbited the earth for five months. During its operational period it had taken over 2500 pictures using the Smart Sensor Camera.

Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the moon launched by the Soviet Union. It was launched on the evening of January 2, 1959. The Luna 1 is the first man-made object to escape the earth’s gravitational force and to reach the heliocentric orbit. This orbit lies between the orbits of earth and mars. The spacecraft was spherical in shape with external sensors at its surface. These sensors are used to detect external radiation and magnetic field. It is equipped with two antennas, radio system, cosmic ray detector and emergency ejector system. There are two proton traps and two piezo-electric pick-ups. The proton traps are used for analyzing the gas particles of interplanetary matter and the piezo-electric pick-ups are used to study the meteoric particles present in the space. The measurements made out of the data transmitted gives us the information about radiation belt of earth and the ionized plasma emanating from the sun. This space program was a milestone in reaching the moon.

This satellite belongs to the United States navy developed by the US navy research laboratory. It was launched on March 17, 1958. It holds the record as the world’s oldest satellite that is still in orbit. The expected life time of this spacecraft was about 240 years. The main mission of this satellite is to study the earth science. It is the first satellite to be powered by the solar energy from the sun. For this purpose the satellite has six solar cells mounted on the outer surface. The spacecraft is spherical in structure and weighs about 1.47 kilograms. There are six short antennas used to transmit the data observed in the space. This tracking data was used to study about the shape of the earth. It also determines the total electron content between the space and the ground stations. This satellite lost the communication slowly and the final data received at May 1964 but it is still in the earth’s orbit.

ARIEL 5 was one of the earliest X- ray astronomy satellites and involved British- American collaboration. It was launched into a low inclination (2.8 degrees) orbit from the San Marco launch platform in the Indian Ocean on 15th October, 1974. The lifetime of this satellite was six years. The satellite energy ranges from 0.3 – 40 keV. It carried six experiments (five for U.K and one for U.S) for cosmic X- ray studies that measured the spectra, polarization, and pulsar features of X- ray sources. The four experiments was utilized for position measurements of X- ray stars and to measure their energy spectra, while the other two for scanning the sky perpendicular to the spin axis. The satellite was approximately in cylindrical in shape, 38 in. in diameter by 34- in. high. It was launched in a quasi- circular orbit at a height of 400 to 500 km. During operation, it spun at a rate of 10 revolutions per minute. The satellite was designed to operate over a restricted range of solar aspects with the sun within 45 deg of normal to the spin axis. The satellite re- entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 14 March, 1980.