 In commemoration of Yuri Gagarin being the first human to space on April 12, 1961, I wanted to talk about the other nations of the world who have traveled down the path to space. This is your space pod for April 7, 2015. Last week I talked about Iran and the steps they are taking to achieve human spaceflight, but today I wanted to talk about some of the other nations who in the past launched their first satellites on their own rockets. The reason I want to talk about these nations launching their first satellites is because having the capability to launch a satellite into orbit paves the way if they choose to be able to launch humans into space, and many of the nations who have achieved human spaceflight flew on either similar rockets to the ones that launched their first satellites or derivatives of those rockets. With Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space being such a special occasion, I wanted to pay tribute to these nations who were able to achieve that very hard step of being able to launch a satellite into orbit, and being able to enable this present time that we live in with the internet and cable television and cat videos, and being able to argue with strangers halfway across the world. It's awesome! So I'd like to give a quick rundown of the nations who have been able to launch their own satellite into orbit. Here we go. As most people know, the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, followed by the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1, launched on February 1, 1958. Although that satellite is not quite as well known, the other nations and satellites that were launched after the Soviet Union in the United States are even less well known. Many nations have built and operated satellites that were launched by other countries. For example, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy were the third, fourth, and fifth nations, respectively, to operate their own satellite. However, their satellites were launched by NASA rockets. So I wanted to focus today more on the nations who have launched their own satellites on their own domestically built rockets. The third nation to launch its own satellite on its own rocket was France on November 26, 1965. They launched the Asterix satellite on their Diamant A rocket from Hamaquir, Algeria. Something notable about the launch site is that it was used by France between 1947 and 1967 for sounding rockets and orbital launches before they started using their launch site in Corot, French Guiana. Not only is Corot a better site to launch from since its downrange is over the Atlantic Ocean, but Algeria, gaining independence from France in 1962, may have also influenced that decision to move launch sites as well. France developed its Diamant rockets between 1962 and 1975, when it decided to retire the rocket in favor of the Ariane family of rockets with the European Space Agency. We'll talk more about the Ariane rocket and its precursors in a future space pod. The fourth nation to launch its own satellite on its own rocket was Japan on February 11, 1970. They launched their Osumi satellite on their Lambda 4S-5 rocket. It's a three-stage, all-solid-propellant, small orbital satellite launch vehicle, very small satellite. Its max payload was only 26 kilograms or 57 pounds. It launched from the Uchinora Space Center, formerly the Kagoshima Space Center, in southern Japan and is still used to launch their Epsilon rocket. Their main launch site is the Tanagashima Space Center, where their heavy H-2 series of rockets are launched from. China was the fifth nation to launch its own satellite. The Dongfang Hong-1, also known as China-1, on its own rocket, Long March-1, also known as Chang Jiang-1, and this launch occurred on April 24, 1970. Something that's interesting about the Long March-1 is it was only launched three times before it was retired, but we'll talk more in detail about China's rocket program in another space pod. Anyway, the sixth nation was the United Kingdom, launching their Prospero satellite on their Black Arrow rocket from Rumera, Australia, on October 28, 1971. Britain is the only country to develop and then later abandon its satellite launcher capability in favor of the United States' Scout rocket at the time, and then later for the European Space Agency's Ariane family of rockets. Although France also abandoned their indigenous rocket program, the Ariane is roughly 60% built by France, so they at least kind of have partial independence in having their own satellite launch capability today. In the late 70s, after organizational and political changes, there were a lot more opportunities that sprung up, and many more nations began developing their own satellites and rockets, and we're going to talk about those projects in the next space pod. It really is amazing to me that these simple satellites but complex rockets paved the way to be able to do so much cool stuff like communication satellites and geostationary orbit and observation and weather satellites and even to a certain extent spy satellites. It's just amazing to me and I can't imagine a world without satellites. So anyway, the next time you see a space pod from me, we're going to pick up where we left off on the other nations and even companies who launched their first satellites into orbit. If you haven't seen it already, yesterday Ariel Waldman had a really cool video about Hayabusa 2, so you definitely should check that out. And tomorrow you can look forward to Lisa Stogenoff's video about immune system testing on the International Space Station. Thank you for watching this space pod. My name is Michael Clark, and don't forget to comment on your favorite social media, subscribe if you haven't already, and we have a new Patreon campaign that's out. It's at patreon.com slash space pod. And from there you can actually fund these space pods directly so that we don't take any more funds away from the live show. That way we can continue to do so much more cool stuff. We can get even more correspondence to talk about more subjects so that we, you know, have covered space, you know, as well as we can. And there's lots of other cool stuff that we're thinking of and having the work. So all of this is making that happen. And thank you so much to everyone who's contributed already. 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