Forty years ago today — August 13, 1972 — Explorer 46 launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, atop a Scout rocket.
(Refurbished backup Meteoroid Technology Satellite. National Air & Space Musuem image.)
Also known as the Meteoroid Technology Satellite, the spacecraft was built to measure meteoroid velocity, distribution, and penetration in target panels that extended from the body of the vehicle. According to this National Air & Space Musuem archival page, the satellite recorded twenty meteoroid and over two thousand micrometeoroid impacts through December 1972.
by 
