Cerise (French for "cherry") was a French military reconnaissance satellite. Its main purpose was to intercept HF radio signals for French intelligence services. With a mass of 50 kg, it was launched by an Ariane rocket from Kourou in French Guiana at 17:23 UT, 7 July 1995. Cerise's initial orbital parameters were period 98.1 min, apogee 675 km, perigee 666 km, and inclination 98.0 deg. On 24 July 1996 it was hit by a catalogued space debris object from an Ariane rocket, making it the first verified case of an accidental collision between two artificial objects in space. The collision (with relative velocity of 14.8 km/s) tore off a 2.8-2.9 metre (9.2-9.5 foot) portion of Cerise's gravity-gradient stabilization boom, which left the satellite severely damaged and tumbling with a limited attitude control system. Novel magnetic control algorithms were used to re-stabilise the otherwise undamaged microsatellite to regain almost full operational mission capability. See also 1995 in spaceflight References External links NSSDC Master Catalog - Cerise National geographic image of the collision Derelict satellites orbiting Earth Satellites of France Spacecraft launched in 1995 Spacecraft launched by Ariane rockets Military equipment introduced in the 1990s