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It is unclear whether Astérix was capable of making ionospheric measurements as originally planned. Equipped with accelerometers measuring vertical and horizontal movement and angular velocity, a radio beacon, radar transponder, thermometer, and telemetry transmitters, the satellite was designed to report its position back to Earth. Its black stripes purportedly provide passive solar gain. Measuring approximately 55 centimetres (22 in) in diameter and 55 centimetres high, Astérix's exterior casing is made of fiberglass and resembles a top. : 26–27 Spacecraft design įrance managed to design, construct, and launch Astérix and FR-1 relatively quickly thanks to three related factors: postwar knowledge gained from Nazi scientists and their work on the V-2 rocket France's independent development of nuclear IRBM launchers including the Saphir rocket, a precursor to Diamant and France's collaborative civilian research with the United States (through NASA) and other European countries (through CERN and ESRO). : 26–27 It appears Astérix was put into orbit prior to FR-1 because Charles de Gaulle and CNES wanted France to become the third space power by launching an independently-developed satellite on a French launcher, a propaganda coup for French exceptionalism during the Cold War. Initial plans called for a late 1964 or early 1965 launch of FR-1, with Astérix's launch scheduled for early 1965. : 28 FR-3 was to be a "scaled-up" version of FR-2, with FR-4 to carry instruments measuring hydrogen distribution in the upper atmosphere, FR-5 to study "magnetic impulses" and serve as a platform for future research, and FR-6 to be a solar-stabilized spacecraft with final payload to be determined based on experimental results from its antecedents. : 26–28 Like FR-1, FR-2 would study the ionosphere. : 27–28 Astérix, ultimately France's first satellite, was initially conceptualized as the second FR satellite under the name FR-2. : 26–28 FR-1 was generally designed to study the Earth's magnetic and electric fields in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. : 26–28 FR-1 was the first step of an ambitious French plan to launch six FR-series satellites, each meant to study a different aspect of the Earth's atmosphere. The French space agencies Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) and Centre national d'études des télécommunications (CNET) were developing Astérix concurrent with FR-1, another satellite, as early as 1963. Astérix orbits Earth as of December 2020 and is expected to do so for centuries. Its main purpose was to test the Diamant launcher, though it was also designed to study the ionosphere. With Astérix, France became the sixth country to have an artificial satellite and the third country to launch a satellite on its own rocket. It was launched on 26 November 1965 by a Diamant A rocket from the CIEES launch site at Hammaguir, Algeria. Prototype of Astérix at the Musée de l'air et de l'espaceĪstérix or A-1 (initially conceptualized as FR.2 or FR-2) is the first French satellite.