[3] At a meeting of the Committee on Space Research, the United States offered to provide assistance to other countries with the development and launch of scientific spacecraft.
[4] In late 1959, the British National Committee for Space Research (BNCSR) proposed the development of Ariel 1 to NASA.
[6] In 1961 the UK Space Research Group accepted proposals for experiments to be carried on the third satellite of the Ariel programme.
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.
[12] It was realized that higher quality X-ray data could be collected in space, and the experiments of Ariel 5 were designed to meet that primary objective.
The Scout rocket was being developed as an inexpensive launcher for payloads up to 50 kilograms (110 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO) and Ariel 1 was intended to launch on it.
The Ariel 3 launch was originally planned for Wallops, but in 1964 experimenters requested an inclination change to the proposed orbit to maximize scientific value.