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Miranda, also known as X-4, is a British satellite in low Earth orbit. The satellite was launched in March 1974 as an engineering test bed of technologies in orbit.[2]

Miranda

Names	X4
COSPAR ID	1974-013A
SATCAT no.	07213[1]
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Hawker Siddeley Dynamics
Launch mass	92 kilograms (203 lb)[2]
Power	2 deployable solar arrays
Start of mission
Launch date	9 March 1974, 02:22:00 (1974-03-09UTC02:22Z) UTC
Rocket	Scout D-1
Launch site	Vandenberg SLC-5
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth Orbit
Eccentricity	0.01403
Perigee altitude	714 kilometres (444 mi)
Apogee altitude	916 kilometres (569 mi)
Inclination	97.8 degrees
Period	101.2 minutes
Epoch	8 March 1974, 08:22:00 UTC [3]

Miranda was named after a character in the Shakespeare play The Tempest,[4][5] just like Prospero (spacecraft) and Ariel 1.

Design

Operational

Miranda used propane cold gas thrusters for attitude control.[1]

Sensors

It contained a Canopus star sensor to determine the reflectivity and interference caused by the propane.[1]

Launch

Miranda was due to be launched by a British Black Arrow rocket, but due to the project's cancellation the payload was instead launched on the NASA-owned rocket Scout.[5]

Mission

Designed as an engineering test bed for various technologies in orbit, Miranda carried various sensors and detectors.[2]

Current status

The satellite is now non-active, but remains in low Earth orbit.

See also

• 1974 in spaceflight

Notes

References

• Gruntman, Mike (2004). Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry. AIAA. ISBN 9781563477058.
• Hill, Charles N. (2001). A Vertical Empire: The History of the UK Rocket and Space Programme 1950-1971 (1st ed.). World Scientific. ISBN 9781783261451.
• Trevorrow, E. U. (3 March 1977). "Miranda Data Processing - Interfaces" (PDF). Royal Aircraft Establishment. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 March 2020.

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