The M-100 was a two-stage Soviet

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 used to ...

. As some 6640 of these rockets were built between 1957 and 1990, it was the most used sounding rocket model ever. Payloads typically radioed science data to ground while descending by parachute. Cross-calibrations with Western counterparts has allowed data's inclusion in global databases. Production ceased following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. M-100 rockets were launched from sites in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Launches also took place from

Kerguelen island The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a la ...

Koroni Koroni or Corone ( el, Κορώνη) is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as ''Corone'' ...

in Greece and Akita in Japan.

Data

* Payload: 15 kg * Maximum flight height: 120 km * Launch mass: 475 kg * Diameter: 0.3 m * Length: 8.34 m

References

M-100 at Encyclopedia Astronomica
Sounding rockets of the Soviet Union