SPARK, or Spaceborne Payload Assist Rocket - Kauai, also known as Super Strypi, is an American

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket s ...

developed by the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, Sandia and

Aerojet Rocketdyne Aerojet Rocketdyne is an American manufacturer of rocket, hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, the company is owned by Aerojet Rocketdyne Hold ...

. Designed to place

miniaturized satellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

s into low Earth and sun-synchronous

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such a ...

s, it is a derivative of the

Strypi Strypi is a two-stage US sounding rocket. Its first stage consists of two Recruit, the second of one Castor (rocket stage), Castor. It is 31 inches (79 centimeters) in diameter, and has a maximum flight height of 124 miles (200 kilometers). It was ...

rocket which was developed in the 1960s in support of

nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected b ...

. SPARK is being developed under the Low Earth Orbiting Nanosatellite Integrated Defense Autonomous System (LEONIDAS) program, funded by the

Operationally Responsive Space Office The Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS Office) is a joint initiative of several agencies within the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The "stand up" of the office took place 21 May 2007 at Kirtland Air Force Base. The first directo ...

of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

Configuration

SPARK is designed as a three-stage all-

solid Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structura ...

carrier rocket, with a

spin-stabilized Spin stabilization is the method of stabilizing a satellite or launch vehicle by means of spin, i.e. rotation along the longitudinal axis. The concept originates from ballistics, where the spin is commonly obtain by means of rifling. For most sate ...

first stage known as LEO-46 and an active attitude control system on the second and third stages. It is launched using a new rail-guided system. It is expected to have a payload capacity of to a

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it ...

at an altitude of approximately . Launches will be conducted from the

Pacific Missile Range Facility The Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands is a U.S. naval facility and airport located five nautical miles (9 km) northwest of the central business district of Kekaha, in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. PMRF is the world's lar ...

at Barking Sands. Aerojet Rocketdyne will produce the motors for all three stages and Sandia is the prime contractor for the rocket's systems. The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

has provided launch support.

History

ORS-4

The first launch of SPARK, named ORS-4, took place on November 3, 2015 and was carrying HiakaSat (formerly called HawaiiSat-1) and several secondary payloads, including the Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks. The mission was supposed to test the rocket at its full payload capacity. However, telemetry showed the rocket tumbling soon after liftoff, and the U.S. Air Force released a statement, saying that the "experimental Super Strypi launch vehicle failed in mid-flight shortly after liftoff".

References

{{US launch systems Space launch vehicles of the United States University of Hawaiʻi 2015 in spaceflight Vehicles introduced in 2015 Microsatellite launch vehicles