The Cajun was an American
sounding rocket
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 ...
developed during the 1950s. It was extensively used for scientific experiments by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
and the
United States military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
between 1956 and 1976.
Development
Development of the Cajun sounding rocket began in early 1956 at the
Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...
' - later NASA -
Langley Research Center
The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. It directly borders Langley Air Force Base and the Back River on the Chesapeake Bay. LaRC has fo ...
, as a development of the earlier
Deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
experimental rocket.
[Corliss 1971, p.24.] Utilising the Deacon's airframe but an improved motor that utilised new, higher-energy propellants to provide better performance, the name "Cajun" was applied to the rocket by the leader of PARD's rocket division, a native of
.
The Cajun rocket was constructed of
stainless steel
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
, with extruded
Duraluminum
Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of ''Dürener'' and ''aluminium''.
Its use as a trad ...
stabilising fins.
The rocket motor, developed by
Thiokol
Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Corporation(/Company), Morton Thiokol Inc., Cordant Technologies Inc., Thiokol Propulsion, AIC Group, ATK Thiokol, ATK Launch Systems Group; finally Orbital ATK before becoming part of Northrop Grumman) was an ...
,
was capable of producing up to thrust.
Operational history
The first test launch of the Cajun rocket took place at the
Wallops Island
Wallops Island is a island in Accomack County, Virginia, part of the Virginia Barrier Islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States of America. It is just south of Chincoteague Island, a popular tourist destination.
W ...
range in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
on June 20, 1956.
The rocket proved to be as successful as expected, and was quickly put into extensive use, both on its own and as an upper stage in the
Nike Cajun
The Nike-Cajun was a two-stage sounding rocket built by combining a Nike base stage with a Cajun upper stage. The Nike-Cajun was known as a CAN for Cajun And Nike. The Cajun was developed from the Deacon rocket. It retained the external size, shap ...
(or CAN, 'Cajun And Nike'),
[Parsch 2002] first launched on July 6, 1956;
[Corliss 1971, p.25.] and in the
Terasca
Terasca, or Terrier-ASROC-Cajun, was an American three-stage sounding rocket developed and launched by the United States Navy. Derived from a combination of the RIM-2 Terrier, Terrier, RUR-5 ASROC, ASROC and Cajun (rocket), Cajun rockets, three lau ...
three-stage rocket, first launched May 1, 1959.
[Parsch 2007] Several other sounding rocket configurations made use of the Cajun stage, the most extensively used being the
Cajun Dart
Cajun Dart is the designation of an American sounding rocket. The Cajun Dart was used 87 times between 1964 and 1970. The Cajun rocket motor was developed from Deacon.
Staged on top of a Nike rocket, it was part of the Nike-Cajun sounding rocket ...
;
the
Bullpup-Cajun and
Double Cajun
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* ' ...
rockets also utilised the stage.
In total, over eight hundred launches of the Cajun rocket in its various configurations were conducted between 1956 and October 6, 1976, when the final Cajun flight, in the Nike-Cajun configuration, was undertaken at Wallops Island.
See also
*
MQR-13 BMTS
The XMQR-13A Ballistic Missile Target System (BMTS) was an unguided target rocket developed by the United States Army during the 1960s, intended for use in the development of missile defense systems. Utilising off-the-shelf parts in four different ...
References
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{{Use American English, date=January 2014
Sounding rockets of the United States