Science
CALSPHERE 1
Radar Calibration Sphere · US Navy / Naval Research Laboratory
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Calsphere 1, launched October 6, 1964 from Vandenberg alongside its twin Calsphere 2 — a hollow aluminum sphere with no power source, no electronics, and no moving parts of any kind. Its entire purpose was to give Cold War-era ground radar a perfectly known, unchanging target to calibrate against. More than six decades later, it is still tracked in orbit — outliving the Cold War, the Space Shuttle program, and most satellites launched decades after it.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 597–621 mi (961–999 km)
- Inclination
- 90.2°
- One orbit
- 104.5 minutes13.8 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 00900
- Int’l designator
- 1964-063C
- Launched
- 1964
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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