Cigar shaped balloon satellite?

March 8, 2013 7:09 PM

When I was a kid, about 1961, my parents took me and my siblings out one night to watch the sky for a satellite. It was described as being a giant silvered balloon, which was oblong. They called it "Cigar" and it was easy to observe, and definitely tumbling as it went over us.

I can't find any reference to any such thing, and I'm wondering what it was. I can only find three such satellite balloons: Echo 1, Echo 2, and PAGEOS, and they were all spheres. Was it maybe something the USSR sent up? Or did I imagine it?

posted by Chocolate Pickle to Science & Nature (12 answers total)

Where did this happen?
posted by fshgrl at 7:22 PM on March 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Portland, Oregon. I think the satellite was in a polar orbit, because it went right over us. It wasn't down on the horizon.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:03 PM on March 8, 2013

Was this with the naked eye? How big did it appear? What month or season was it?
posted by zamboni at 8:12 PM on March 8, 2013

Response by poster: Yes, with the naked eye. It was very large and bright and easy to see. I think it must have been summer because I don't remember bundling up.

This was 50 years ago when I was in first grade. I don't remember a lot of details. My parents said that it was a giant balloon like Echo 1, except that it wasn't a sphere.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:23 PM on March 8, 2013

Not cigar shaped, but Echo. Silver mylar balloon. Up until that time the largest and brightest satellite in the night sky, 100 feet in diameter.
posted by JackFlash at 8:29 PM on March 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yes, I know about Echo. (I linked it in my question.) I'm sure that isn't what I saw, because Echo wouldn't have tumbled the way I remember. And there's no reason why my parents would have called it "Cigar"; I was an avid space freak at that age and knew all about Echo.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:16 PM on March 8, 2013

Throwing this out there, just in case.
posted by unknowncommand at 9:20 PM on March 8, 2013

Oh yes, I'm totally wrong.
posted by unknowncommand at 9:21 PM on March 8, 2013

Is there any way it was a Corona low-orbit satellite? More likely, it was a plain old weather balloon, which can often appear cigar-shaped at a distance.

While perhaps unrelated, unidentified flying objects were commonly called "cigare volant", or flying cigar, in mid-century France.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 9:39 PM on March 8, 2013

Response by poster: I think the reason my parents took us out to see it is that they saw something in the newpaper about when it would be visible. That wouldn't have happened with a weather balloon. (Also they weren't in the habit of deceiving us, and they told us it was a satellite.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:13 PM on March 8, 2013

Best answer: You may very well have been observing Echo 1. By 1961, one year after insertion into orbit, Echo 1 was reported to have deflated to just over half to three-quarters its original volume. As reported by AP in August 1961, "Some believe it may have shrunk to a diameter of perhaps 70 feet. Others suggest it has lost it's spherical symmetry and has taken somewhat the form of a football..." This article from 1963 reports the skin was 'wrinkled like a prune' (adding it was the only satellite visible to the naked eye). These effects could have explained the fluctuations in brightness as it passed overhead.
posted by prinado at 11:41 PM on March 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It never occurred to me that Echo 1 might have partially deflated, but it's obvious that could have happened. I though my parents used "cigar" as a formal name, but they may simply have been using it as a description of the shape of the partially-deflated Echo 1. I think Prinado has it.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:29 AM on March 9, 2013