Goals: Explorer 35 was a small spacecraft designed to study interplanetary space phenomena near the Moon.
Accomplishments: In particular, Explorer 35 studied the solar wind, the interplanetary magnetic field, dust distribution near the Moon, the lunar gravitational field, the weak lunar ionosphere and the radiation environment. It found that the Moon has no magnetosphere, enabling the charged particles of the solar wind to hit the lunar surface.
Explorer 35 was launched on the 50th Thor-Delta booster (right), a highly successful launch vehicle of the era.
