Asounding rocket orrocketsonde, sometimes called aresearch rocket or asuborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during itssub-orbital flight. The rockets are often used to launch instruments from 50 to 150 km (30 to 90 mi)[1] above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally betweenweather balloons andsatellites; the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40 km (25 mi) and the minimum for satellites is approximately 120 km (75 mi).[2]
Due to their suborbital flight profile, sounding rockets are often much simpler than their counterparts built for orbital flight.[2] Certain sounding rockets have anapogee between 1,000 and 1,500 km (600 and 900 mi), such as theBlack Brant X and XII. Sounding rockets may be flown to altitudes as high as 3,000 km (2,000 mi) to allow observing times of around 40 minutes to provide geophysical observations of the magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere.[3]
The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabularytosound, which is to throw a weighted line from a ship into the water to measure the water's depth. The term itself has itsetymological roots in theRomance languages word forprobe, of which there are nouns likesonda andsonde and verbs likesondar which means "to do a survey or a poll."Sounding in the rocket context is equivalent to "taking a measurement."[4]
The basic elements of a modern sounding rocket are asolid-fuel rocket motor and a sciencepayload.[4] In certain sounding rockets the payload may even be nothing more than a smoke trail as in theNike Smoke which is used to determine wind directions and strengths more accurately than may be determined byweather balloons. A sounding rocket such as theNike-Apache may deposit sodium clouds to observe very high altitude winds. Larger, higher altitude rockets have multiplestages to increase altitude and payload capability.
A flight of a sounding rocket has several parts. During the boost phase, the rocket burns its fuel to accelerate upwards, nearly vertically. Once the motor burns all of its fuel, the rocket may fall away to allow the payload to coast along a ballistic trajectory. The path of the rocket in nearly parabolic, being influenced only by gravity and small wind resistance at high altitudes. The speed decreases near the highest point of the flight, theapogee, allowing the payload to linger around this point for a few minutes.[2] Lastly, the rocket descends, sometimes deploying a drag source such as a small balloon or aparachute.[4] The average flight time is less than 30 minutes; usually between 5 and 20 minutes.[2]
Sounding rockets have used balloons, airplanes, and artillery as first stages. Project Farside[5][6] used arockoon[7] composed of a 106,188-cubic-metre (3,750,000 cu ft) balloon, lifting a four-stage rocket.Sparoair was launched in the air from Navy F4D and F-4 fighters. Sounding rockets can also be launched from artillery guns, such asProject HARP's 5,-7,-and-15-inch (130, 180, and 380 mm) guns, sometimes having additional rocket stages.[8]
The earliest sounding rockets usedliquid propellant, such as theWAC Corporal,Aerobee, andViking. The GermanV-2 was used in both the US and the USSR immediate after World War II. Starting in the 1950s, inexpensive surplus military boosters such as those used by theNike,Talos,Terrier, andSparrow were used. Since the 1960s, most sounding rockets have been specifically designed for the purpose, such as theBlack Brant.
The earliest attempts at developing sounding rockets were in theSoviet Union. While all of the early rocket developers were concerned with developing the ability to launch rockets, some had the objective of investigating the atmosphere. The first All-Union Conference on the Study of Stratosphere was held in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1934.[9] The conference primarily dealt with balloonRadiosondes, however, there was a small group of rocket developers who sought to develop "recording rockets" to explore the upper atmosphere.[10]Sergey Korolev, who later became the leading figure of the Soviet space program, gave a presentation in which he called for "the development of scientific instruments for high-altitude rockets to study the upper atmosphere."[11]
V. V. Razumov, of the Leningrad Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion, had a specific interest in sounding rocket design. A. I. Polyarny, who worked in a special group within the Society for Assistance to the Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction of the USSR in Moscow, designed the R-06, which eventually flew, but not in the meteorological role.[10]
The early Soviet efforts to develop a sounding rocket ultimately failed before WWII.[10] P. I. Ivanov built a three-stage rocket which flew in March 1946. At the end of summer 1946, development ended because it lacked sufficient thrust to lift a research payload.[10]
The first successful sounding rocket was created at theCalifornia Institute of Technology, where beforeWorld War II there was a group of rocket enthusiasts led byFrank Malina, under the leadership ofTheodore von Kármán, known as the "Suicide Squad." Their immediate goal was to explore the upper atmosphere, which required developing the means of lofting instruments to high altitude and recovering the results. After the start of WWII, the rocketry enthusiasts found themselves involved in a number of defense programs, one of which was intended to produce a guided missile, the Corporal. Eventually known as theMGM-5 Corporal it became the first guided missile deployed by the US Army.
During WWII, theSignal Corps created a requirement for a sounding rocket to carry 11 kilograms (25 lb) of instruments to 30 kilometres (100,000 ft) or higher.[12] To meet that goal, Malina proposed a smallliquid-propellant rocket to provide the necessary experience to develop the Corporal missile.[13][14] Malina with Tsien Hsue-shen (Qian Xuesen in Pinyin transliteration), wrote "Flight analysis of a Sounding Rocket with Special Reference to Propulsion by Successive Impulses." As the Signal Corps rocket was being developed for the Corporal project, it lacked any guidance mechanism. Thus it was named theWAC Corporal for "without attitude control." The WAC Corporal served as the foundation of Sounding Rocketry in the US. The WAC Corporal was developed in two versions, the second of which was much improved. After the war, the WAC Corporal was in competition for sounding mission funding with the much larger capturedV-2 rocket being tested by the US Army. The WAC Corporal was overshadowed at its job of cost-effectively lifting experiments to high altitudes, thus it effectively became obsolete. WAC Corporals were later modified to become the upper stage of the first two-stage rocket theRTV-G-4 Bumper.
TheViking rocket was designed by the US Navy to not only replace the V-2, but to also advance guided missile technology.[19] The Viking was controlled by a multi-axis guidance system with gimbled XLR10-RM-2 engines. The Viking was developed through two major versions. After the United States announced it intended to launch a satellite in the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958) the Viking was chosen as the first stage of the Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle. The last two Vikings were fired as Vanguard Test Vehicle 1 and 2.[20]
During the post-WWII era, the USSR also pursued V-2-based sounding rockets. The last two R-1As were flown in 1949 as sounding rockets. They were followed between July 1951 and June 1956 by four R-1Bs, two R-1Vs, three R-1Ds, five R-1Es, and one R-1E (A-1).[21] The improved V-2 descendant, the R-2A, could reach altitudes of 190 km (120 mi) and was flown between April 1957 and May 1962.[22] Fifteen R-5Vs were flown from June 1965 to October 1983. Two R-5 VAOs were flown in September 1964 and October 1965.[23] The first solid-fueled Soviet sounding rocket was the M-100.[24] Some 6640 M-100 sounding rockets were flown from 1957 to 1990.
Other early users of sounding rockets were Britain, France, and Japan.
France had begun the design of aSuper V-2 but that program had been abandoned in the late 1940s due to the inability of France to manufacture all of the necessary components. Development of theVeronique began in 1949, but it was not until 1952 that the first full-scale Veronique was launched. Veronique variants were flown until 1974.[16][25] TheMonica family was all solid-fueled, and a number of versions were built. These were later replaced by the ONERA series.[16]
The People's Republic of China was the last nation to launch a new liquid-fueled sounding rocket, theT-7.[26] It was first fired from a very primitive launch site, where the "command center" and borrowed power generator were in a grass hut separated from the launcher by a small river. There was no communications equipment, not even a telephone between the command post and the rocket launcher. The T-7 led to the T-7M, T-7A, T-7A-S, T-7A-S2 and T-7/GF-01A. The T-7/GF-01A was used in 1969 to launch the FSW satellite technology development missions. Thus the I-7 led to the first Chinese satellite, the Dong Fang Hong 1 (The East is Red 1), launched by a DF-1.Qian Xuesen (Tsien Hsue-shen in Wade Guiles transliteration) was vital to the development of Chinese rocketry, and the Dong Feng-1. He had worked withTheodore von Kármán and the California Institute of Technology "Suicide Squad," creating the first successful sounding rocket, theWAC Corporal.
By the early 1960s, the sounding rocket was considered established technology.
Sounding rockets are advantageous for some research because of their low cost (often using military surplus rocket motors),[4][2] relatively shortlead time (sometimes less than six months)[4] and their ability to conduct research in areas inaccessible to either balloons or satellites. They are also used as test beds for equipment that will be used in more expensive and riskyorbital spaceflight missions.[2] The smaller size of a sounding rocket also makes launching from temporary sites possible, allowingfield studies at remote locations, and even in the middle of the ocean, if fired from a ship.[27]
Sounding rockets have been used for the examination of atmospheric nuclear tests by revealing the passage of the shock wave through the atmosphere.[28][29][circular reference] In more recent times, sounding rockets have been used for other nuclear weapons research.[30]
Common meteorological rockets are theLoki andSuper Loki. They are typically 3.7 m (12 ft) tall and powered by a 10 cm (3.9 in) diametersolid fuel rocket motor. The rocket motor separates at an altitude of 1,500 m (4,900 ft) and the rest of the rocketsonde coasts to itsapogee, or highest point. They can be launched to an altitude between 20 and 113 km (12 and 70 mi).
Due to the high military relevance of ballistic missile technology, there has always been a close relationship between sounding rockets and military missiles. It is a typicaldual-use technology, which can be used for both civil and military purposes.[32] During theCold War, the Federal Republic of Germany cooperated on this topic with countries that had not signed theNon-Proliferation Treaty on Nuclear Weapons at that time, such as Brazil, Argentina and India. In the course of investigations by theGerman peace movement, this cooperation was revealed by a group of physicists in 1983.[33] The international discussion that was thus set in motion led to the development of theMissile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) at the level of G7 states. Since then, lists of technological equipment whose export is subject to strict controls have been drawn up within the MTCR framework.
The BritishSkylark sounding rocket programme began in 1955 and was used for 441 launches from 1957 to 2005. Skylark 12, from 1976, could lift 200 kilograms (440 lb) to 575 kilometres (357 mi) altitude.[34]
Exela Space Industries is developing the Aims-1 sounding rocket that will launch to 100 km (60 mi) in 2035.
Evolution Space operates the Gold Chain Cowboy sounding rocket with launch to 124.5 km (77.4 mi) on April 22, 2023.[38]
The Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) operates a Small Sounding Rocket Program (SSRP) for launching payloads (mostly educational) to altitudes of about 7 km (4.3 mi).
TheIndian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) launched a Sounding Rocket (Vyom) in May, 2012, which reached an altitude of 15 km (9.3 mi). Vyom Mk-II is in its conceptual design stage with an objective to reach a 70 km (43 mi) altitude with a 20 kg (44 lb) payload.[39]
TheUniversity of Queensland operates Terrier-Orion sounding rockets (capable of reaching altitudes in excess of 300 km or 190 mi) as part of theirHyShot hypersonics research.
NASA routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boostedImproved Orion, lifting 270–450-kg (600–1,000-pound) payloads into theexoatmospheric region between 97 and 201 km (60 and 125 mi).[40]
TheJAXA operates the sounding rocketsS-Series: S-310 / S-520 / SS-520.
United States/New Zealand companyRocket Lab developed the Ātea series of sounding rockets to carry 5 to 70 kg (11 to 154 lb) payloads to altitudes of 250 km (160 mi) or greater, launched once on 30 November 2009.
TheMeteor rockets were built in Poland between 1963 and 1974.
TheKartika I rocket was built and launched in Indonesia byLAPAN on 1964, becoming the fourth sounding rocket in Asia, after those from Japan, China and Pakistan.
TheSoviet Union developed an extensive program using rockets such as theM-100, the most used ever; its successor by its successor state, Russia, is theMR-20 and later the MR-30.
Since 1965, Brazil has been developing and launching itsSonda series of sounding rockets, which has served as the foundation for its research and development efforts. Other rockets include theVSB-30, designed by theInstitute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE), and the PESL rocket, created by the startup PION Labs.[41]
TheExperimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) is a non-profit organization based in the United States which has operated the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) since 2006.[42]
TheLatin American Space Challenge (LASC) is an international competition held in Brazil, focused on launching student-developed sounding rockets and experimental satellites. Since 2019, the event has attracted student-led teams from Latin American countries, as well as Turkey and Taiwan, to launch their projects.[43]
ONERA in France launched a sounding rocket namedTitus, developed for observation of the totalsolar eclipse in Argentina on November 12, 1966. Titus was a two-stage rocket with a length of 11.5 m (38 ft), a launch weight of 3.4 t (7,500 lb), and a diameter of 56 cm (22 in). It reached a maximum height of 270 km (170 mi). It was launched twice inLas Palmas, Chaco during the eclipse, in collaboration with the Argentine space agency CNIE.[44]
German Aerospace Center's Mobile Rocket Base (DLRMORABA) designs, builds and operates a variety of sounding rocket types and custom vehicles in support for national and international research programs.
The Indian aerospace companySkyroot Aerospace launchedVikram S sounding rocket on 18 November 2022 and became the first private entity in India to achieve the mark.[45]
^Frank. J Malina : Astronautical Pioneer Dedicated to International Cooperation and the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. 57th International Astronautical Congress. 2006.doi:10.2514/6.IAC-06-H.L.4.01. p11
^abcdeNewell, Homer E. Jr. (1959).Sounding Rockets. New York: McGraw-Hill.
^Kennedy, Gregory P (2009).The Rockets and Missiles of White Sands Proving Ground 1945–1958. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History. p. 107.ISBN978-0-7643-3251-7.
^Sutton, George (2006).History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines. Reston Virginia: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.ISBN1-56347-649-5.
^Milton W. Rosen (1955).The Viking Rocket Story. New York: Harper & Brothers.OCLC317524549.
^Green, Constance; Lomask, Milton (1970).Vanguard - a History. Washington D.C.: NASA. NASA-SP-4202. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^Wade, Mark."R-1".Astronautix. Mark Wade. Retrieved26 September 2024.
^Wade, Mark."R-2A".Astronautix. Mark Wade. Retrieved26 September 2024.
^Wade, Mark."R-5V".Astronautix. Mark Wade. Retrieved26 September 2024.
^Wade, Mark."M-100".Astronautix. Mark Wade. Retrieved26 September 2024.
^Wade, Mark."Veronique".Astronautix. Mark Wade. Retrieved26 September 2024.
^Wade, Mark."T-7".Astronautix. Mark Wade. Retrieved28 September 2024.
Amato, Ivan (2001).Pushing the Horizon. Seventy-Five Years of High Stakes Science and Technology at the Naval Research Laboratory. Fort Belvoir, Virginia: Defense Technical Information Center.
Hall, R. Cargiil (1969).Essays on the History of Rockerty and Astronautics: Proceedings of the Third Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics, Volume II. Washington D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Office.
Chertokt, Boris E. (2005-01-01).Rockets and People Volume I SP-2005-4110(PDF). The NASA History Series. Washington D.C.l: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved2024-09-01.
Corliss, William R. (1971).NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958-1968. The NASA Historical Report Series. Washington D.C. Library of Congress Catalog Number = 70-169175: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved2024-08-24.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Cornell, Lloyd H. Jr, Editor, History of Rocketry and Astronautics AAS History Series, Number 15,American Astronautical Society, San Diego, California, 1993, INBN 0-87703-377-3
Kennedy, Gregory P. (2009).The Rockets and Missiles of White Sands Proving Grounds 1945-1958. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military History.ISBN978-0-7643-3251-7.
Morrow, Richard B.; Pines, Mitchell S. (2000).Small Sounding Rockets. Searingtown, New York: Small Rocket Press.ISBN0-967-4106-0-6.
Newell, Homer E. Jr.Express to the Stars. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1961, Library of Congress Card Number 61-16734.
Newell, Homer E. Jr.Sounding Rockets. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1959,Library of Congress Card Number 59-13884.
Peraton, Inc (2023).NASA Sounding Rockets User Handbook(PDF). Greenbelt, Maryland: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/TP-20230006855. Retrieved2023-05-24.
Rosen, Milton W., The Viking Rocket Story, Harper & Brothers, New York, Library of Congress Card Number 55–6592
Seibertt, Günther (2006).The History of Sounding Rockets and Their Contribution to European Space Research. The Netherlands: ESA Publications Division.ISBN92-9092-550-7.
Smith Jr., Charles P., Pressly. Elanor C., 1958, Upper Atmosphere Research Report No. XXI Summary of Upper Atmosphere Research Firings,https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADB957191.pdf, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.*Sounding Rocket Division (1971).The United States Sounding Rocket Program. Greenbelt, Maryland: Godard Space Flight Center.
White, L.D., 1952, Final Report, Project Hermes V-2 Missile Program, General Electric Company, Defense Products Group, Aeronauti and Ordnance Systems Division, Guided Missile Dept Schenectady, NY, Call Number 39088014776371, lccn96036508, oclc 1045303092l,https://archive.org/details/finalreportproje00whi
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
