ALOUETTE. An international satellite program, Alouette was a Canadian project in cooperation with NASA and was given its name in May 1961 by the Canadian Defence Research Board. The name was selected because, as the French-Canadian name for meadowlark, it suggested flight; the word "Alouette" was a popularly used and widely known Canadian title; and, in a bilingual country, it called attention to the French part of Canada's heritage. NASA supported the Board's choice of name for the topside sounder scientific satellite.

Alouette 1, instrumented to investigate the earth's ionosphere from beyond the ionospheric layer, was launched into orbit by NASA from the Pacific Missile Range 28 September 1962. It was the first satellite designed and built by a country other than the United States or the Soviet Union and was the first satellite launched by NASA from the West Coast. Alouette 2 was orbited later as part of the U.S.-Canadian ISIS project (see ISIS).