Weapons Research Establishment Satellite (WRESAT)

The Weapons Research Establishment Satellite (WRESAT) was Australia’s first satellite and marked Australia becoming the seventh nation to launch a satellite, and the third to do so from its own territory. WRESAT was launched on 29 November 1967 from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia into a near-polar low Earth orbit.

The satellite was launched aboard a Sparta rocket, a three-stage launch vehicle derived from a modified American Redstone first stage with two solid-propellant upper stages. The launch vehicle was provided by the United States as part of the joint Australian–US–UK Sparta program.

WRESAT was a simple, cone-shaped, battery-powered spacecraft with a mass of approximately 45 kg and a length of about 1.59 m. It transmitted experimental data during its initial 73 orbits before ceasing operation, and ultimately re-entered the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean on 10 January 1968 after completing 642 revolutions of the Earth.