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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The first integrated circuits to orbit Earth were Texas Instruments SN510 and SN514 Series 51 devices aboard Explorer 18, launched on 26 November 1963. They served in the satellite’s Optical Aspect Computer—a practical early use of ICs in a working scientific spacecraft, distinct from both the invention of the integrated circuit and the later Apollo Guidance Computer.
Which integrated circuits first went into orbit?
Explorer 18, also called IMP-A, carried TI’s SN510 and SN514 Series 51 integrated circuits. A NASA-sponsored historical account identifies the flight as the first time integrated circuits were carried into space; the Computer History Museum also names the chips and spacecraft. Texas Instruments’ retrospective, the Computer History Museum’s account, and the NASA-sponsored historical study provide the principal accounts of the milestone.
Explorer 18 launched on 26 November 1963 as the first satellite in NASA’s Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP). The program studied radiation and other space phenomena relevant to Apollo. The IC milestone was therefore part of a scientific satellite mission, not an Apollo spacecraft flight.
What did the first orbiting ICs do?
The SN510 and SN514 devices were used in Explorer 18’s Optical Aspect Computer. The Computer History Museum describes their functions in terms of binary counters, flip-flops, and inhibiting circuits: basic digital-logic operations within the computer, rather than a general-purpose computer built from a single chip.
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The sources identify the chips’ role at this level but do not establish a complete chip-level electrical or environmental specification. They do not support assigning the devices a particular radiation-hardness rating or detailed performance figures.
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Why did NASA want the Series 51 chips?
Texas Instruments’ 2021 retrospective places the project in 1961. Jack Kilby, then leading TI’s semiconductor laboratory, assigned engineer Charles “Bob” Cook to lead work for NASA. TI says NASA wanted a digital-logic IC line to replace the SN502, with a target of ten times its speed and one-tenth its power requirements, and gave the team ten months.
Those figures describe NASA’s development targets as reported by TI; they are not independent measurements of the chips’ eventual performance in orbit. TI’s account says early yields during Cook’s work were about 50%, a manufacturer-reported process figure rather than an industry-wide rate.
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How did TI develop the Series 51 design?
Cook recalled two process advances: putting two transistors on one chip and adding oxide to the silicon surface so conductors could connect them. As he described it to TI:
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“We found a way to put two transistors on a chip and we put oxide on the surface of the silicon to allow us to put conductors on it to connect the transistors.”
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Charles “Bob” Cook, quoted in Texas Instruments’ 24 June 2021 retrospective
This recollection helps explain the manufacturing work behind the project, but it does not by itself document a complete engineering test record. The available accounts establish the chips’ flight and broad computer functions, not detailed qualification procedures or component specifications.
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What does the mission establish about the chips’ operation?
The NASA-sponsored historical study reports that Explorer 18 functioned normally until 30 May 1964 and intermittently until 10 May 1965. It also states that the integrated circuits were not responsible for the spacecraft’s later anomalous performance. That mission history supports the limited conclusion that the devices flew as part of an operating satellite; it does not substitute for a chip-level test report.
How is this different from the Apollo Guidance Computer milestone?
The first ICs in orbit and the Apollo Guidance Computer are related milestones in the broader history of space electronics, but they are not the same event. Explorer 18’s SN510 and SN514 chips flew in 1963 as components of an Optical Aspect Computer. The Computer History Museum describes the Apollo Guidance Computer as a later major project that used thousands of integrated circuits. Its prominence should not be mistaken for the first ICs to reach orbit.
Cook later recalled that he had not known where his work would be used: “I never knew what systems my work was going into. I was just doing my job.” The line captures the small, specialized nature of the achievement: integrated circuits had begun entering practical spacecraft electronics before the technology became associated with larger, better-known computer systems.
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