Maxus is a sounding rocket that are used in the MAXUS microgravity rocket programme, a joint venture between Swedish Space Corporation and EADS Astrium Space Transportation used by ESA. [1] It is launched from Esrange Space Center in Sweden and provides access to microgravity for up to 14 minutes. [2]
| Mission | Date | Launch site | Motor | Apogee | Payload | Modules | Comments | Reference Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maxus 1 | 1991 May 8 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 154 km | ||||
| Maxus 1B | 1992 Nov 8 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 717 km | Successful | |||
| Maxus 2 | 1995 Nov 29 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 706 km | Successful | |||
| Maxus 3 | 1998 Nov 24 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 713 km | 798 kg | 5/ESA | Successful | Esrange EUP105-99006 |
| Maxus 4 | 2001 Apr 29 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 704 km | 803 kg | 5/ESA | Mostly successful; parachute failed | Esrange EUP110-E15 |
| Maxus 5 | 2003 Apr 1 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 703 km | 795 kg | 5/ESA | Mostly successful; rough landing | Esrange EUP114-E114 |
| Maxus 6 | 2004 Nov 22 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 707 km | 793 kg | 5/ESA | Successful | Esrange EUP117-E146 |
| Maxus 7 | 2006 May 2 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 705 km | 785 kg | 5/ESA | Successful | Esrange EUP124-E36 |
| Maxus 8 | 2010 March 26 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 703 km | 803 kg | 3/Astrium ST 1/SSC | Successful | |
| Maxus 9 | 2017 April 7 | Esrange | Castor 4B | 849 kg | Successful | [3] | ||
SMART-1 was a Swedish-designed European Space Agency satellite that orbited around the Moon. It was launched on 27 September 2003 at 23:14 UTC from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. "SMART-1" stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-1. On 3 September 2006, SMART-1 was deliberately crashed into the Moon's surface, ending its mission.
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 launch instruments from 48 to 145 km above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between weather balloons and satellites; the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40 km and the minimum for satellites is approximately 121 km. Certain sounding rockets have an apogee between 1,000 and 1,500 km, such as the Black Brant X and XII, which is the maximum apogee of their class. Sounding rockets often use military surplus rocket motors. NASA routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boosted Improved Orion, lifting 270–450-kg (600–1,000-pound) payloads into the exoatmospheric region between 97 and 201 km.
Vega is an expendable launch system in use by Arianespace jointly developed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Development began in 1998 and the first launch took place from the Centre Spatial Guyanais on 13 February 2012.
Esrange Space Center is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches, and satellite tracking, among other things. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a vast wilderness, its geographic location is ideal for many of these purposes.
The Swedish National Space Agency is a Government agency in Sweden operating under the Swedish Ministry of Education and Science. SNSA operates as a key component of the Swedish space programme, which is mostly carried out through international cooperation, and has included a sequence of satellite missions, both national ones and in cooperation with other nations. Furthermore, the agency distributes government grants to research and development, initiates research and development in space and remote sensing, and acts as the Swedish contact in international cooperative efforts.
The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) provides space subsystems, space and satellite operations, rocket and balloon systems including experiment equipment, launch services, aerospace engineering services as well as airborne maritime surveillance systems. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries ECAPS and NanoSpace, the SSC is also engaged in the development of propulsion systems and micromechanical systems for space applications.
The Swedish Institute of Space Physics is a Swedish government agency. The institute's primary task is to carry out basic research, education and associated observatory activities in space physics, space technology and atmospheric physics.
The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a previously existing international scientific institution, CERN. The ESRO convention, the organisations founding document outlines it as an entity exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. This was the case for most of its lifetime but in the final years before the formation of ESA, the European Space Agency, ESRO began a programme in the field of telecommunications. Consequently, ESA is not a mainly pure science focused entity but concentrates on telecommunications, earth observation and other application motivated activities. ESRO was merged with ELDO in 1975 to form the European Space Agency.
The Castor family of solid-fuel rocket stages and boosters built by Thiokol and used on a variety of launch vehicles. They were initially developed as the second-stage motor of the Scout rocket. The design was based on the MGM-29 Sergeant, a surface-to-surface missile developed for the United States Army at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
VSB-30 - "Veículo de Sondagem Booster – 30" or "Foguete Suborbital VSB-30" is the designation of a Brazilian sounding rocket, which replaced the Skylark rocket at Esrange.
TEXUS is a European/German sounding rocket programme, serving the microgravity programmes of ESA and DLR. The launches are conducted from Esrange in Sweden.
A number of suborbital spaceflights were conducted during 2008. These consist mostly of sounding rocket missions and missile tests, and include other flights such as an ASAT firing. Between the start of the year and 16 July, at least 43 publicly announced suborbital spaceflights were conducted, the first of them on 11 January.
The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 (ATV-002), was an uncrewed cargo spacecraft built to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It was launched on February 16, 2011 by the European Space Agency (ESA). Johannes Kepler carried propellant, air and dry cargo weighing over 7,000 kilograms (15,000 lb), and had a total mass of over 20,000 kilograms (44,000 lb), making it, at the time, the heaviest payload launched by the ESA. The spacecraft was named after the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler.
MASER is a sounding rocket that is used in the MASER microgravity research rocket programme, which is operated by the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). The main customer is the European Space Agency (ESA), and in particular its EMIR and ELIPS programmes. MASER stands for "MAterials Science Experiment Rocket".
ELIPS - European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences in Space and applications utilising the International Space Station started in 2001 and was intended to cover the activities for the following 5 years. This Microgravity Programme at the European Space Agency (ESA) is an optional programme, with currently 17 ESA member states participating. The ELIPS programme prepares and performs research on the International Space Station, and other unmanned mission platforms like Sounding Rockets, in fundamental and applied life and physical sciences. ELIPS is the continuation of the earlier European microgravity programmes EMIR 1&2, and the Microgravity Facilities for Columbus, MFC.
The Mobile Rocket Base, abbreviated MORABA, is a department of the DLR Space Operations and Astronaut Training in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. Since the 1960s, the MORABA has performed scientific high altitude research missions with unmanned rockets and balloons, and has developed the required mechanical and electrical systems. Their operational areas include upper atmosphere research, microgravity research, astronomy, geophysics, materials science, as well as hypersonic research.
The Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe (PRIDE) is an Italian Space Agency programme that aims to develop a reusable robotic spaceplane named Space Rider in collaboration with the European Space Agency.
The REXUS/BEXUS programme is a cooperation between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) that allows students from higher education institutions to study experiments on board sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons. Through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), the opportunity has been made available for students across all ESA Member States, Slovenia and Canada. The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Mobile rocket base (MORABA) of DLR are responsible for the launch. Students are getting support from experts of DLR, ESA, SSC and ZARM. The programme started in 2007.
The German space programme is the set of projects funded by the government of Germany for the exploration and utilisation of outer space. The space programme is run by the German Aerospace Center, who conduct research, plan, and implement the programme on behalf of the German federal government.
The Themis programme is a European Space Agency programme, that is taking the first steps towards a European government-funded demonstration flights of a prototype reusable rocket first stage. The prototype rocket will also be called Themis, with flights slated to begin as early as 2023.
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