Ariel 1, also known as
UK-1 and
S-55, was the first
British satellite. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the
Soviet Union and the USA. It was constructed in the
United States by
NASA, under an agreement reached as the result of political discussions in 1959 and 1960.
NASA constructed and launched the satellite, whilst SERC provided the experiments, conducted operations, and later analysed and interpreted the results. Ariel 1 was launched aboard an American Thor-Delta rocket from Launch Complex 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on 26 April 1962. It decayed from orbit on 24 April 1976.
Joseph Francis Shea (September 5, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an
American aerospace engineer and
NASA manager. Born in the
New York City borough of
the Bronx, he was educated at the
University of Michigan, receiving a
Ph.D. in
Engineering Mechanics in 1955. After working for
Bell Labs on the radio
inertial guidance system of the
Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile, he was hired by NASA in 1961. As Deputy Director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, and later as head of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, Shea played a key role in shaping the course of the
Apollo program, helping to lead NASA to the decision in favor of
lunar orbit rendezvous and supporting "all up" testing of the
Saturn V rocket. While sometimes causing controversy within the agency, Shea was remembered by his former colleague
George Mueller as "one of the greatest
systems engineers of our time".
Deeply involved in the investigation of the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, Shea suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the stress that he suffered. He was removed from his position and left NASA shortly afterwards. From 1968 until 1990 he worked as a senior manager at Raytheon in Lexington, Massachusetts, and thereafter became an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. While Shea served as a consultant for NASA on the redesign of the International Space Station in 1993, he was forced to resign from the position due to health issues.
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