Future Sounding Rockets

Economic considerations, which have been of great i m portance in the past, will cont inue to be the underlying philosophy in the design of future sounding rockets. I n creased s u m m i t alt i tudes and reliability, ease of servicing, and mobil i ty of launch, as well as low un i t cost, are used as criteria to evolve a group of suitable sounding rockets. The Aerobee has potential capability of a 250-mile s u m m i t alt i tude wi th launching mobil i ty and facilitated servicing. An advanced vehicle similar to the Aerobee employs four thrust chambers in a unique application to extend the s u m m i t alt i tude above 300 miles . A vehicle known as t h e Spaerobee simply adds a second stage to the Aerobee to give a s u m m i t alt i tude capability of 350 miles wi th a 40-lb payload. Extreme launching flexibility can be achieved by firing a sounding rocket from an airplane which has zoomed in to a vertical at t i tude . The single-stage Aerosound propels a 40-lb payload to 45 mi les , while a two-stage Aerosound reaches over 100 mi les wi th the same payload. Using presently available solid propellant rockets, staged vehicles can be assembled yielding a lmost any desired performance. While takeoff gross weight may be relatively high, un i t costs are strikingly low.