The INTA-100 vehicle was a small 2-stage meteorological

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 ...

designed and developed between the 1980s and the 1990s by the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA). The final design was entirely produced in Spain to be used by the Instituto Nacional de Meteorología (INM now part of the

AEMET The State Meteorological Agency (, AEMET) is a state agency of the Government of Spain responsible for providing weather forecast, warnings of hazardous weather and assisting the administrations in such matters. The AEMET is part of the Secretari ...

) in conducting experiments on the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

Body

The rocket was a small cylindrical rod 4 meters in length and 10 cm of diameter and a total weight of 70 kg. It was divided into two sections: 1st stage (codename INTA S-12) and the 2nd stage (codename ''Urbión'' in reference to the Iberian peaks of the same name) each with its own stabilizing fins. This configuration allowed up to 6 kg of payload with a flight

apoapsis An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

of 115 km.

Development

The INTA 100 sounding rocket project was initiated in 1980. With help from the British company

Bristol Aerojet Bristol Aerojet (BAJ) was a joint venture between the Bristol Aeroplane Company of the United Kingdom and Aerojet General of the US begun in 1959 using the existing factory at Banwell near Weston super Mare, England. History Banwell aircraft f ...

, the first launch took place in June 1984, with six additional launches performed by 1986. The main drive behind these test was to further develop and improve

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 ...

s and their

guidance system A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes in pos ...

. With one notable exception, all test were highly successful in helping develop a hybrid inertial/infrared guidance system that would later be used in several of INTA's satellites (such as the

Minisat 01 The Minisat 01 was a satellite developed in Spain as a means to kickstart its space program. The project started in 1990 and was funded by both the Inter-Ministerial Committee of Space Science and Technology (CICYT) and the Instituto Naciona ...

ETRV and the

Nanosat 01 The Nanosat 01, sometimes written as NanoSat-1 or NanoSat 01, was an Satellite, artificial satellite developed by the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) and launched 18 December ...

ACS). The 5 following test would focus on

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...

studies such as reception of ionospheric beacons emitted by satellites and atmosphere dynamics. To fund these missions INTA reached for several, both public and private, investors such as the

Spanish Air Force The Spanish Air and Space Force () is the aerial and space warfare branch of the Spanish Armed Forces. History Early stages Hot air balloons have been used with military purposes in Spain as far back as 1896. In 1905, with the help of Al ...

, the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

, the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

DFVLR The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

, IROE and most important the ''Comisión Nacional de Investigación del Espacio'' (CONIE). The later completely funded 2 launches and quickly became INTA's main partner also participating in

balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...

launches and the funding of infrastructure. As a consequence of the closure of CONIE in 1986, the INTA-100 project was put on hold for 4 years due to the lack of funds. Nonetheless, by 1990 the situation was good enough to resume work on the rocket producing 6 more rockets that would be complete testing by 1992. These test would prove successful enough to encourage the development of the INTA rocket series that would culminate on the Capricornio. In addition, INTA would be given funds to develop more ambitious projects such as the first Spanish

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

s ( Intasat and

) that would pave the way for INTA to join

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

and reach the current involvement on the space industry.

Launches

During its career 12 rockets were built and used in a total of 17 missions (15 of them successfully) from ''

El Arenosillo El Arenosillo Test Centre (CEDEA) is the name of a rocket launch site for suborbital rockets managed by Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, INTA, located in Moguer (Spain). It is located in the provinces of Spain, province of Huelva (pro ...

'', most of them to conduct various test on either the rocket or its payload.

References

{{Space program of Spain Sounding rockets of Spain Space launch vehicles of Spain Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial

Body

Development

Launches

See also

References