Talk:Explorer 3

Transmitting antenae?
Article in The Altus Times-Democrat (26 Mar 1958) said: ''Only difference between Eplorer-III and Explorer-II is removal of the four prong-like antennae from today's satellite. The satellite itself was to act as the transmitting antenna'' Is it correct?

Reason for decay?
Why did the spacecraft's orbit decay? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.162.0.42 (talk) 19:26, 1 May, 2006 (UTC)
 * It was probably slowed down by friction from the atmosphere, until it no longer had sufficient velocity to stay in orbit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PCSrules2018 (talk • contribs) 23:24, 9 August, 2006 (UTC)
 * Its orbital perigee was only 116 miles above Sea Level. At that height there's enough atmospheric drag to bleed off a small amount of orbital energy with each revolution. With each revolution the apogee drops a little bit. Eventually the apogee drops to the same height as the perigee. From that point the Spacecraft suffers continuous drag and spirals downward. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.223.130.32 (talk) 02:54, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Orbital period -- Minutes?
The current depiction of the orbital characteristics of the original trajectory of this satellite says:


 * Explorer 3 was placed in an orbit with a perigee of 186 kilometers and an apogee of 2799 kilometers having a period of 115.7.

I'm assuming that the period is 115.7 minutes, but I'm not sure. The unit is missing here and it would be worth putting into this article by somebody with the facts closer at hand. --Robert Horning (talk) 04:21, 9 January 2009 (UTC)


 * You're right, it is minutes (also see the table with spacecraft info). I fixed it in the text. Van der Hoorn (talk) 17:49, 10 January 2009 (UTC)