LEX (French: Lithergol EXpérimentale) was a French experimental hybrid-propellant sounding rocket, developed by

ONERA The Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales ( English: National office for aerospace studies and research) or ONERA, dubbed ''The French Aerospace Lab'' in English, is the French national aerospace research center. Originally f ...

. It had the objective of testing a ''lithergol'' fueled

rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...

(an hybrid mixture of

solid Solid is a state of matter where molecules are closely packed and can not slide past each other. Solids resist compression, expansion, or external forces that would alter its shape, with the degree to which they are resisted dependent upon the ...

and liquid propellants -

Nylon Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups. Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...

-meta tolueneamine as fuel and mixture of

nitric acid Nitric acid is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but samples tend to acquire a yellow cast over time due to decomposition into nitrogen oxide, oxides of nitrogen. Most com ...

and

nitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russian rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

oxidizer An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ''electron donor''). In ot ...

). It was the first rocket in history to use this technology, flying 8 times between 1964 and 1967. The rocket had a single stage with a thrust of 10.00 kN (MT.27 hybrid rocket motor), a gross mass of 100 kg, a height of 3.40 m, and a diameter of 0.16 m, reaching an apogee of 130 km.

Launches

All LEX launches were carried out from

CERES Ile du Levant CERES ("Centre d'Essais et de Recherches d'Engins Spéciaux" for "''Special Weapons Research and Tests Center"'') Ile du Levant was a French suborbital rocket launch site, located at Levant Island, Ile du Levant, and active between 1956 and 1968. ...

. The first LEX-01 launch on 25 April 1964 was a partial success, with the payload consisting of a telemetry transmitter. Three LEX-02 rockets were fired on 1 June 1965. One of these rockets, with an initial mass of 78 kg, reached an altitude of 68 km. Four LEX-02-B launches occurred on 1 November 1967. Two were intended as technological tests and two others as actual payload launches. These carried the ''SECT Meteo'' meteorological payloads, reaching an altitude of more than 100 km, with a parachute ensuring a correct descent for 31 minutes allowing wind measurements over a wide range of altitudes.

References

{{Reflist Onera sounding rockets Rockets and missiles Hybrid-propellant rockets 1964 introductions

Launches

See also

References