On this day in space! March 19, 1964: Ionospheric satellite fails to reach orbit

On March 19, 1964, NASA unsuccessfully attempted to launch a satellite called Beacon Explorer-A on a mission to study the ionosphere.

This is a region in Earth's upper atmosphere where radiation from the sun strips the electrons off atoms and molecules, creating a layer of ions and free electrons.

An artist's illustration of NASA's Explorer-27 Earth ionosphere satellite, also known as Beacon Explorer-C. — Technicians work on NASA's Beacon Explorer-A before its ill-fated launch. (Image credit: NASA)

Beacon Explorer-A was supposed to go count all those free electrons using a radio beacon, but it never reached orbit after it launched. After a smooth liftoff from Cape Kennedy, something went wrong with the Delta rocket's third stage. The third burn was supposed to last 40 seconds, but the engines cut off after 22 seconds. Beacon Explorer-A re-entered Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the south Atlantic Ocean, and it was destroyed.

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Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.

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