The Annual Compendium of Commercial Space Transportation 2017

Annual Compendium of Commercial Space Transportation: 2017
Operational Suborbital Launch Vehicles
Sounding Rockets
Sounding rockets typically employ solid propellants, making them ideal for
storage. Sounding rockets differ from amateur or hobbyist rockets in two
ways: They climb to higher altitudes but do not enter a sustainable orbit, and
they carry out missions on behalf of commercial, government, or non-profit
clients. Sounding rockets are used for atmospheric research, astronomical
observations, and microgravity experiments that do not require human tending.
Three sounding rocket systems are currently available to U.S. customers, with
two that have a long history of providing highly reliable services. Canada-based
Bristol Aerospace has provided sounding rockets that have been used in the
U.S. for decades. They are available to the U.S. scientific community through the
NASA Sounding Rockets Operations Contract (NSROC), managed by the NASA
Sounding Rockets Program Office (SRPO), located at Wallops Flight Facility
(WFF) in Virginia.
NASA’s SRPO conducts sounding rocket launches for NASA, universities, and
other customers. Supplied vehicles include Bristol Aerospace’s Black Brant
series in several vehicle configurations, from a single-stage vehicle to a fourstage
vehicle stack (described in a previous section); the Improved Orion; and
the Terrier-Improved Orion. NASA’s SRPO integrates the subassemblies, which,
with the exception of Black Brant, consist of military surplus Orion and Terrier
motors. Payloads are typically limited to science and hardware testing. SRPO
conducts about 15-20 sounding rocket launches per year from WFF in Virginia,
Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, White Sands Missile Range in New
Mexico, and Andoya Rocket Range in Norway.
A description of major U.S. sounding rockets is provided below:
A Black Brant sounding
rocket launched in 2011
(NASA)
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Black Brant: The Black Brant sounding rocket system is a flexible, multiconfiguration
family of upper- and exo-atmospheric launch vehicles.
Over 1,000 Black Brant rockets have launched since production
began in 1962. The Black Brant rocket motor, the related Nihka rocket
motor, and supporting hardware are all manufactured in Canada by
Bristol Aerospace, a subsidiary of Magellan Aerospace Limited. U.S.-
manufactured Terrier, Talos, and Taurus motors are on several Black
Brant configurations. The SRPO has made extensive use of the Black
Brant vehicles. The Black Brant family of vehicles can launch a 113-kg
(250-lb) payload to an altitude of at least 1,400 km (870 mi), a 454-kg
(1,000-lb) payload to an altitude of at least 400 km (250 mi), or a 680-
kg (1,500-lb) payload to an altitude of at least 260 km (160 mi). These
vehicles can provide up to 20 minutes of microgravity time during a flight.
Payloads with diameters of up to 56 cm (22 in) have flown successfully.
The smallest version of the Black Brant family is the Black Brant V, which
is 533 cm (210 in) long and 43.8 cm (17.24 in) in diameter. The rocket
produces an average thrust of 75,731 N (17,025 lbf). The Black Brant V
motor can be used on its own, as a single-stage vehicle, or used as the
second or third stage in larger, multi-stage versions of the Black Brant.
The most powerful configuration of the family, the Black Brant XII, is a
four-stage vehicle that uses the Black Brant V motor as its third stage