Objectives and Applications
The goal of the mission is to detect the Van Allen radiation belts in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Explorer-1 mission (launch January 31, 1958), America's first satellite that first discovered the cloud of highly energetic electrons trapped in the Earth's magnetic field. Shortly after launch, the E1P-2 mission was renamed to HRBE (Hiscock Radiation Belt Explorer), in honor of Dr. William A. Hiscock, the founder and former director of the MSGC (Montana Space Grant Consortium).
Full Name
Explorer-1 PIME-2
Mission Status
Operational (extended)
Mission Agencies
MSU Space Science and Engineering Lab
, NASA
Launch Date
28 Oct 2011
Mission Links
EOL Date
Jan 2030
Orbit Type
Sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
101 minutes
Orbit Sense
Descending
Orbit Inclination
98.7 deg
Orbit Altitude
824 km
Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST
Repeat Cycle
16 days
NORAD Catalog #
International Designator
No IDN OpenSearch datasets found.