Alouette 1 – Celebrating 50 Years of Canada in Space
The following article is a free sample from the current issue of Space Quarterly Magazine. It is our hope that if you enjoy this article you will consider subscribing to the magazine.
Alouette 1 by Chris Gainor
Canada’s first satellite, Alouette 1, is best known for being dedicated to scientific research. But that is only part of the story.
Alouette 1, which continues to silently orbit the Earth on the 50th anniversary of its launch, was as much a product of the Cold War as its more famous predecessor, Sputnik, and it was a forerunner of the communications satellites that have since formed the heart of Canada’s space industry.
The story of Alouette began at the turn of the twentieth century in 1901, when Guglielmo Marconi received the first wireless message to cross the Atlantic on Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland. By the 1920s, radio allowed communities in every part of Canada to keep in touch.
