Deacon is the designation of an American sounding rocket. [1] The Deacon was launched 90 times from 1947 to 1957 from Wallops Island, [1] and it also was the rocket portion of the first rockoons, launched 1952 to 1956. The Deacon has a maximum flight height of 20 kilometers and a payload ability of 17 kilograms. The takeoff thrust of the Deacon amounts to 27 kN, the takeoff weight 93 kg, the diameter 0.16 m and the length 3.28 m.
The Triple Deacon was a single stage member of the Deacon family that used three Deacon booster motors. [2] Five launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility occurred in 1953. [2]
A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch sites for purely sub-orbital flights are sometimes called spaceports, as in recent years new and proposed sites for suborbital human flights have been frequently referred to or named "spaceports". Space stations and proposed future bases on the Moon are sometimes called spaceports, in particular if intended as a base for further journeys.
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.
Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other Federal agencies. WFF includes an extensively instrumented range to support launches of more than a dozen types of sounding rockets; small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets; high-altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research; and, using its Research Airport, flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
Bélier is the designation of a French sounding rocket family. Three versions of the Bélier were launched between 1961 and 1970 at the CIEES launch facility at Hammaguir, the Salto di Quirra and Ile du Levant missile ranges, and Kourou Space Center.
The INTA-255 was a Spanish sounding rocket developed by the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial.
The Rockair was first suggested by Hermann Oberth in his 1929 book Wege zur Raumschiffahrt. Rockair concepts were developed by both the United States Air Force and Navy, both generally finding marginal use in the concept. The Air Force began studying the concept of an air-launched sounding rocket in 1947, while the Navy managed to get the first launch in August 16, 1955 using an F2H2 off of Wallops Island. The folded-fin aerial rocket(FFAR) reached an altitude of 54,864m. The Air Force followed up with their first air-launched sounding rocket concept on December 13, 1956, under the name "Rockaire". A Deacon rocket was used, launched from a F-86 fighter aircraft.
Astrobee is the designation of series of American sounding rockets with one to three stages.
Cajun Dart is the designation of an American sounding rocket. The Cajun Dart was used 87 times between 1964 and 1970. The Cajun rocket motor was developed from Deacon.
Arcas was the designation of an American sounding rocket, developed by the Atlantic Research Corp., Alexandria, Va.
ASP, (Atmospheric Sounding Projectile is the designation of an American sounding rocket family. ASP-I was used to sample nuclear explosions and resultant clouds The ASP was the fastest single stage sounding rocket when developed. The Asp was manufactured by Cooper Development Corporation, California. The solid propellant motor was made by Grand Central Rocket company.
The Mesquito is an American sounding rocket vehicle developed for the NASA Sounding Rocket Program on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Mesquito was developed to provide rocket-borne measurements of the mesospheric region of the upper atmosphere. An area of great science interest is in the 82–95 km region, where the conventional understanding of atmospherics physics is being challenged.
The Terrier Orion sounding rocket is a combination of the Terrier booster rocket with the Orion rocket used as a second stage. This spin stabilized configuration is most often used by the Goddard Space Flight Center, who operate out of the Wallops Flight Facility for sounding rocket operations. The system supports payloads ranging from 200 to 800 pounds, and is capable of achieving altitudes as high as 120 miles (200 km), but at least 50 miles (80 km), depending on payload size.
Launch Pad 0 (LP-0), also known as Launch Complex 0 (LC-0), or Launch Area 0 (LA-0), is a launch complex at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia, in the United States. MARS is located right next to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), which had run the launch complex until 2003. WFF still provides support services to MARS launches under a contract with the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Scout X-1 was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket which was flown seven times between August 1960 and October 1961. Four orbital and three suborbital launches were made, with four of the launches resulting in failures.
Launch Area 3 (LA-3) at the Wallops Flight Facility is a launch complex which was used, mostly by Scout rockets, between 1960 and 1985. Forty-one Scout launches occurred from the complex, making both orbital and suborbital. In addition, four Nike sounding rockets were launched from the complex in 1970.
Rohini is a series of sounding rockets developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for meteorological and atmospheric study. These sounding rockets are capable of carrying payloads of 2 to 200 kilograms between altitudes of 100 to 500 kilometres. The ISRO currently uses RH-200, RH-300,Mk-II, RH-560 Mk-II and RH-560 Mk-III rockets, which are launched from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in Thumba and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The Nike stage or Nike booster, a solid fuel rocket motor, was created by Hercules Aerospace for the Nike Ajax (M5) Nike Hercules (M5E1). It was developed for use as the first stage of the Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules missiles as part of Project Nike.
The Exos, originally designated RM-86 and later PWN-4, was a sounding rocket developed by the University of Michigan and NACA for use by the United States Air Force.
The Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) was a payload flown aboard Black Brant XII sounding rockets to collect data about cosmic infrared background. In 2014 results from CIBER indicated an excess of infrared light, beyond what is emitted by galaxies.
