| Alouette 2 | |
| Mission Type: | Ionospheric research |
| Operator: | DRDC |
| Cospar Id: | 1965-098A |
| Satcat: | 1804 |
| Mission Duration: | Final: |
| Manufacturer: | RCA Victor |
| Launch Date: | UTC |
| Launch Rocket: | Thor SLV-2 Agena-B |
| Launch Site: | Vandenberg LC-75-1-1 |
| Orbit Epoch: | 5 December 2013, 13:24:44 UTC[1] |
| Orbit Reference: | Geocentric |
| Orbit Regime: | Medium Earth |
| Orbit Periapsis: | 508km (316miles) |
| Orbit Apoapsis: | 2652km (1,648miles) |
| Orbit Inclination: | 79.8 degrees |
| Orbit Period: | 117.61 minutes |
| Apsis: | gee |
Alouette 2 was a Canadian research satellite launched at 04:48 UTC on November 29, 1965, by a Thor Agena rocket with Explorer 31 from the Western test range at Vandenberg AFB in California. It was (like its predecessor Alouette 1, and Explorer 31) designed to explore the ionosphere.
The name "Alouette" came from the French for "skylark" and from the title of a popular French-Canadian folk song. Alouette 2 was also known as ISIS-X since it was the first in a series of ISIS satellites: International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies. The next one was called ISIS-I.
The Alouette 2 was built up from the identical backup satellite to Alouette 1. It had many more experiments and more sophisticated support systems than the earlier satellite. It lasted for 10 years, being terminated on August 1, 1975.[2]
RCA Victor of Montreal, Quebec, was the prime contractor; Havilland Aircraft of Toronto, Ontario, served as associate contractor.[3]
After the Alouette 2 was launched, the upper stage of the rocket used to launch the satellite became a derelict object that would continue to orbit Earth for many years., the upper stage remains in orbit.[4]
The satellite itself became a derelict after August 1975. It too remains in earth orbit .[5]