Private Industry Sounding Rockets

[1974_Trident]

I came across this video and thought it is interesting enough to share here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi6Z6yFJ23U&feature=player_embedded

I really like the recovery of this rocket and the locating beacon antenna.

 

[jsdemar]

I came across this video and thought it is interesting enough to share here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi6Z6yFJ23U&feature=player_embedded

I really like the recovery of this rocket and the locating beacon antenna.

They lost the rocket out at sea when they finally launched it.

 

[bobkrech]

This is their website. https://www.rocketlab.co.nz/

It appears that they have only launched their small sounding rocket, the Atea-1 once. This rocket is a boosted dart design with a hybrid booster, and is similar in performance to a Viper IIA/IIIA dart. https://www.astronautix.com/lvs/viper.htm https://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/n-12.html

The single launch was a partial success, the rocket got off the pad and appeared to have a nominal burn, however the telemetry never functioned. The booster was recovered by a commercial fishing boat 18 hours after launch, but the payload dart was never recovered so they were not able to verify performance.

There really isn't much demand for a sounding rocket of this type (and the US has not manufactured them since 2002), but it does have the advantage that it can be shipped anywhere as it is totally inert without the nitrous.

Bob