Ariel III: Life
The main dates for Ariel III's life were
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5 May 1967: launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Scout rocket
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7 May 1967: Slough received the first stream of useful data
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24 October 1967: Onboard tape recorder started to malfunction
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6 February 1968: Tape recorder broke down completely but real-time operations continued
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December 1968: Satellite power failure restricted real-time operation to daylight hours only
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April 1969: Satellite decreased to about 15 passes per week;observations made only from Winkfield; satellite spin decayed to 1 rpm
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September 1969: Satellite turned off
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14 December 1970: Deceased, broke up
