Alouette I: Canada’s first satellite and its tape-measure antenna that outlived its plan

Canada’s 1962 Alouette I became the nation’s first satellite and used storable, tubular extendible antennas rolled up like a carpenter’s tape measure to fit in the rocket. Deployed in orbit, the long antennas enabled ionospheric observations that far surpassed the one-year design life, generating a vast archive of ionograms and contributing to hundreds of scientific papers, demonstrating how clever packaging and deployment can unlock long-duration space science.