The launch of Ariel 2 was conducted by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, using a Scout X-3 rocket.

[1] One of the major scientific focuses of the Ariel 2 mission was to characterize galactic radio emissions at frequencies below 10 MHz.

[8] In order to remove the effects of Earth-based radio waves, the antenna was tuned to detect frequencies between 0.7 and 3.5 MHz.

[8] The observations were processed to determine the mean sky brightness in Ariel 2's preferred frequency band.

[8] The tape recorder data was downloaded using the high speed transmission channel when the satellite was in range of a ground station.