Explorer 2

  1958-F02

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The second Explorer was launched on 1958 Mar 5 by Juno I. Stage 4 failed to ignite and Explorer II did not achieve orbit. The main innovation on Explorer II was a tape recorder to store cosmic ray data for regions not covered by ground stations.

Intended orbit was 351 x 1459 x 34.1.

Explorer 2 to 5 were formally under ARPA.

Explorer II
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1958 Mar 5	1827:57	Launch by Juno I	CC LC26A
		T+2:29 Redstone cutoff (LOX depl.)
		T+2:33 Redstone sep
	1834:29	Stage 2 burn T+6:30, 376 km	-5911 x 380
		Stage 2 cutoff
	1834:45	Stage 3 burn T+6:46
	1834:53	Stage 3 cutoff
	1834:58	Stage 4 failed to ignite	-3599 x 379 x 34.1
	1841?	Stage 4/payload impact, range 3260 km