NIMBUS II A GOOD BIRD’
(N.Z.P A Reuter—Copyright)
BALTIMORE, May 16. Nimbus 11, the largest United States weather satellite in orbit so far began transmitting pictures and information back to earth yesterday about eight hours after it was launched.
“It’s a real good bird. Its power is good and it has stabilised,” a spokesman said at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland. The 10-foot butterflyshaped satellite is in an orbit 726 miles from earth at
its farthest point and 687 miles away at its nearest point. The space agency had planned to put it into a circular orbit 690 miles from earth. Nimbus 11, which weighs 9121 b, joins an earlier Nimbus weather satellite launched in 1964. Eventually Nimbus II will send day and night weather photographs to a worldwide chain of automatic picture transmission centres. It will also be able to determine how much of the sun’s radiation is absorbed by the earth every day and how such reflected. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CV, Issue 31061, 17 May 1966, Page 17
Word Count
173NIMBUS II A GOOD BIRD’ Press, Volume CV, Issue 31061, 17 May 1966, Page 17
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