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Sounding Rocket
A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often used to launch instruments from above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between weather balloons and satellites; the maximum altitude for balloons is about and the minimum for satellites is approximately . Due to their suborbital flight profile, sounding rockets are often much simpler than their counterparts built for orbital flight. Certain sounding rockets have an apogee between , such as the Black Brant X and XII, which is the maximum apogee of their class. For certain purposes, sounding rockets may be flown to altitudes as high as to allow observing times of around 40 minutes to provide geophysical observations of the magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere. Etymology The origin of the term comes fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Brant (rocket)
The Black Brant is a family of Canadian-designed sounding rockets originally built by Bristol Aerospace, since absorbed by Magellan Aerospace in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over 800 Black Brants of various versions have been launched since they were first produced in 1961, and the type remains one of the most popular sounding rockets. They have been repeatedly used by the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. History Black Brant was the result of research at Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) during the 1950s into the nature of the upper part of the atmosphere as part of ongoing research into anti-ballistic missile systems and very-long-range communication. In 1957, CARDE contracted Bristol to produce a simple rocket fuselage, called the Propulsion Test Vehicle, for studies into high-power solid fuels. The resulting design, by Albert Fia, was quite heavy, as it was designed to be able to accommodate a wide variety of engine burning times, propellant loadings and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Brant
The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after the species. Taxonomy The brant was Species description, formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Anas bernicla''. Linnaeus specified the type locality (biology), type locality as Europe but in 1761 restricted it to Sweden. The brant is now one of six species placed in the genus ''Branta'' that was introduced in 1769 by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. The genus name ''Branta'' is a Latinised form of Old Norse ''brandgás'', "burnt (black) goose". The specific epithet ''bernicla'' is Medieval Latin for barnacle. The brant and the similar barnacle goose were previously c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocket Staging
A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of or attached next to each other. Two-stage rockets are quite common, but rockets with as many as five separate stages have been successfully launched. By jettisoning stages when they run out of propellant, the mass of the remaining rocket is decreased. Each successive stage can also be optimized for its specific operating conditions, such as decreased atmospheric pressure at higher altitudes. This ''staging'' allows the thrust of the remaining stages to more easily accelerate the rocket to its final velocity and height. In serial or tandem staging schemes, the first stage is at the bottom and is usually the largest, the second stage and subse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MIM-3 Nike Ajax
The Nike Ajax was an American guided surface-to-air missile (SAM) developed by Bell Labs for the United States Army. The world's first operational guided surface-to-air missile, the Nike Ajax was designed to attack conventional bomber aircraft flying at high subsonic speeds and altitudes above . Nike entered service in 1954 and was initially deployed within the United States to defend against Soviet Union, Soviet bomber attacks, though it was later deployed overseas to protect US military bases, and was also sold to various allied militaries. Some examples remained in use until the 1970s. Originally known simply as "Nike (mythology), Nike", it gained the "Ajax the Great, Ajax" as part of a 1956 renaming effort that resulted from the introduction of the similarly named Nike Hercules. It was initially given the identifier SAM-A-7 (Surface-to-air, Army, design 7) as part of an early tri-service identification system, but later changed to MIM-3 in 1962.Nike was initially designated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
R-1 (missile)
The R-1 rocket (NATO reporting name SS-1 Scunner, Soviet code name SA11, GRAU index 8A11) was a tactical ballistic missile, the first manufactured in the Soviet Union, and closely based on the German V-2 rocket. The R-1 missile system entered into service in the Soviet Army on 28 November 1950. Deployed largely against NATO, it was never an effective strategic weapon. Nevertheless, production and launching of the R-1 gave the Soviets valuable experience which later enabled the USSR to construct its own much more capable rockets. History In 1945 the Soviets captured several key A-4 ( V-2) rocket production facilities, and also gained the services of some German scientists and engineers related to the project. In particular the Soviets gained control of the main V-2 manufacturing facility at Nordhausen. Under the supervision of the Special technical Commission (OTK) established by the Soviet Union to oversee rocketry operations in Germany, A-4s were assembled and studied. This p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viking (rocket)
Viking was a series of twelve sounding rockets designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company under the direction of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Designed to supersede the German V-2 as a research vehicle, the Viking was the most advanced large, liquid-fueled rocket developed in the United States in the late 1940s, providing much engineering experience while returning valuable scientific data from the edge of space between 1949 and 1955. Viking 4, launched in 1950, was the first sounding rocket to be launched from the deck of a ship. After twelve flights, the Viking was adapted into the first stage for the Vanguard (rocket), Vanguard satellite launch vehicle, which launched America's second satellite into orbit in 1958. Origins After World War II, the United States Army experimented with captured German V-2 rockets as part of the Hermes program. The number of V-2s available for all research was limited and Hermes was an Army project. The U.S. Navy had the nee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerobee
The Aerobee rocket was one of the United States' most produced and productive sounding rockets. Developed by the Aerojet Corporation, the Aerobee was designed to combine the altitude and launching capability of the V-2 with the cost effectiveness and mass production of the WAC Corporal. More than 1000 Aerobees were launched between 1947 and 1985, returning vast amounts of astronomical, physical, aeronomical, and biomedical data. Development Research using V-2 rockets after World War II produced valuable results concerning the nature of cosmic rays, the solar spectrum, and the distribution of atmospheric ozone. However, the limited supply and the expense of assembling and firing the V-2 rockets, as well as the small payload capacity of the first purpose-built sounding rocket, the WAC Corporal, created demand for a low cost sounding rocket to be used for scientific research. An Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) effort led by James Van Allen led to a contract presented 17 May 194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WAC Corporal
The WAC Corporal was the first operational sounding rocket developed in the United States. It was an offshoot of the Corporal program, that was started by a partnership between the United States Army Ordnance Corps and the California Institute of Technology (named "ORDCIT") in June 1944 with the ultimate goal of developing a military ballistic missile. Development History The California Institute of Technology had been fostering a group of rocket engineers in the 1930s at their Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) including Frank Malina, Jack Parsons, and Edward Forman. p11 They became known as the "suicide squad" because so many of their early experiments at the Laboratory blew up. Some of the GALCIT enthusiasts had founded a business to manufacture rocket motors called Aerojet. During the first years of World War II, GALCIT had pursued the development of both solid and liquid-fueled Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO) boosters to aid aircraft take off performance. As t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquid Rocket Propellant
The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants (liquid-propellant rockets). They can consist of a single chemical (a monopropellant) or a mix of two chemicals, called bipropellants. Bipropellants can further be divided into two categories; hypergolic propellants, which ignite when the fuel and oxidizer make contact, and non-hypergolic propellants which require an ignition source. About 170 different propellants made of liquid fuel have been tested, excluding minor changes to a specific propellant such as propellant additives, corrosion inhibitors, or stabilizers. In the U.S. alone at least 25 different propellant combinations have been flown. Many factors go into choosing a propellant for a liquid-propellant rocket engine. The primary factors include ease of operation, cost, hazards/environment and performance. History Development in early 20th century Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the use of liquid propellants in 1903, in his article ''Exploration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project HARP
Project HARP, for high altitude research project, was a joint venture of the United States Department of Defense and Canada's Department of National Defence created with the goal of studying ballistics of re-entry vehicles and collecting upper atmospheric data for research. Unlike conventional space launching methods that rely on rockets, HARP instead used very large guns to fire projectiles into the atmosphere at extremely high speeds. A HARP gun operated by the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory (now called the U.S. Army Research Laboratory) at Yuma Proving Ground currently holds the world record for the highest altitude that a gun-fired projectile has achieved: . History Preparations Project HARP originated as the brainchild of Gerald Bull, a renowned but controversial ballistic engineer specializing in high-velocity guns and gun propulsion systems. In the mid-1950s, Bull was working on anti-ballistic missile (ABM) and intercontinental ballistic missile (IC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sparoair
Sparoair was a family of air-launched sounding rockets developed by the United States Navy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Based on the Sparrow air-to-air missile, three versions of the rocket were developed; all launches were from Point Mugu and although some were successful, the system did not enter operational service. Versions Sparoair I and II Sparoair was developed by the Naval Missile Center, as a two-stage development of the Sparrow III air-to-air missile. Propelled by two Sparrow rocket motors mounted in tandem, the Sparoair could be launched from F3H (F-3) Demon and F4D (F-6) Skyray fighter aircraft, and was capable of lifting a payload to an apogee of . The Sparoair I was the original version of the rocket, launched using an ejection system and a lanyard for firing; after that proved unreliable in flight testing, the Sparoair II was developed that utilised a rail launch with ignition prior to release from the aircraft. Eight launches of Sparoair II vehicl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parachute
A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves various purposes like slowing cargo, aiding in space capsule recovery, and stabilizing vehicles or objects. Modern parachutes are typically made from durable fabrics like nylon and come in various shapes, such as dome-shaped, rectangular, and inverted domes, depending on their specific function. The concept of the parachute dates back to ancient attempts at flight. In 852 AD, Armen Firman, in Córdoba, Spain, made the first recorded jump with a large cloak to slow his fall. Renaissance figures like Francesco di Giorgio Martini and Leonardo da Vinci later sketched designs resembling modern parachutes, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that the first successful jumps occurred. French Louis-Sébastien Lenormand made the first public jump i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
