The Small Astronomy Satellite 3 (SAS 3, also known as SAS-C before launch) (Explorer 53) was a NASA X-ray astronomy space telescope. It functioned from 7 May 1975 to 9 April 1979. It covered the X-ray range with four experiments on board. The satellite, built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), was proposed and operated by MIT's Center for Space Research (CSR). It was launched on a Scout vehicle from the Italian San Marco platform (Broglio Space Center) near Malindi, Kenya, into a low-Earth, nearly equatorial orbit. It was also known as Explorer 53, as part of NASA's Explorer program.
The spacecraft was 3-axis stabilized with a momentum wheel that was used to establish stability about the nominal rotation, or Z-axis.