Hopi-Dart 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 ...
used by the
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...
for
aeronomy studies in the early 1960s.
Design
Hopi-Dart was a two-stage vehicle, combining a
solid-fuelled Hopi III first stage with an unpowered Dart second stage.
It was originally capable of carrying a payload of to an
apogee of ; an upgrade, sometimes known as "Hopi Plus", increased the apogee to .
[Jacobs and Whitney 1962, p. 80.] The Hopi-Dart was developed for NASA Marshall Space Fight Center to obtain wind speeds at altitudes from 70 to 90 kilometers in support of Saturn launches. Design was headed by Charles W. Watson.
[Morris and Pines 2000, p. 195.]
Operational history
Eleven test and eleven operational
aeronomy missions were flown, with
Wallops Island, the
Tonopah Test Range
The Tonopah Test Range (TTR, also designated as Area 52) is a highly classified, restricted military installation of the United States Department of Defense, and United States Department of Energy ( nuclear stockpile stewardship) located about ...
, and the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 43
Launch Complex 43 (LC-43) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida was a launch complex used by American sounding rockets between 1962 and 1984. It supported 2,038 sounding rocket launches. In 1984, sounding rocket launches moved to LC-47
...
being used as launch sites. Four of the test launches were failures.
After flight 18 significant modifications were made. The modifications were to the interstage, propellant formulation, and the rocket nozzle. The redesigned first stage was renamed the Hopi III. Hopi III-Dart was replaced by the Super Loki-Dart of Space Data Corporation.
[Morris and Pines 2000, p. 200.]
References
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Sounding rockets of the United States