In 1961 the UK Space Research Group accepted proposals for experiments to be carried on the third satellite of the Ariel programme.

The British National Committee for Space Research selected experiments from those proposals and submitted them to NASA in 1962.

The scientific objectives for the mission were selected in January 1963, and full work on the satellite began in early 1964 due to organisational and financial difficulties.

The batteries were considered the least reliable component in the system so this method was devised to mitigate the issue.

In 1964 experimenters requested a change to the proposed orbit, from an inclination of 50–70° to 78–80° to maximize coverage at the geomagnetic latitude.

[1] Nevertheless, as of May 5, 1968, after one year in orbit, the satellite's five experiments were still functioning and had returned 400 million bits of usable data on the upper atmosphere.

[13] Ariel 3 suffered from a significant power failure in December 1968, restricting the satellite's operation to daylight hours only.