The Mohr Rocket was a
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 by
Ernst Mohr
Ernst Mohr was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wuppertal. He developed the meteorological Mohr Rocket, on behalf of the German Rocket Society. The rocket was first launched successfully on September 14, 1958 near Cux ...
in
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
, Germany.
It was a single stage solid fuel rocket with:
*a length of 1.7 metres,
*a total mass of 150 kg (75 kg propellant),
*a lift-off thrust of 76.5 kN and a diameter of 0.3 m.
*a payload, which could weigh up to 5 kg (this was stored in a
dart
Dart or DART may refer to:
* Dart, the equipment in the game of darts
Arts, entertainment and media
* Dart (comics), an Image Comics superhero
* Dart, a character from ''G.I. Joe''
* Dart, a ''Thomas & Friends'' railway engine character
* Dar ...
with a mass of 15 kg, a maximum diameter of 0.056 metre and a length of 1.25 metres.)
The burn time of the engine was 2 seconds. After the burnout of the engine the dart was separated from the rocket. Dart and rocket had a height of 1200 m and a speed of 1200 m/s when separated after burnout. The dart flew without further propulsion up to a height of 50 kilometres, because of its good aerodynamic design, while the rocket, which was not so well designed aerodynamically, reached a lesser height and fell to the ground near the launchpad.
The first launch attempt was planned on August 24, 1957, near Cuxhaven, but cancelled because of bad weather. On June 8, 1958, the first launch attempts were made, but failed, because two rockets hung on the launcher and the third was unstable in flight.
The next launch attempt of three further rockets on September 14, 1958, was successful. The rockets reached the desired height of 50 km.
See also
{{Portal, Spaceflight
*
Rocket experiments in the area of Cuxhaven
Between 1933 and 1964 numerous rocket experiments were carried out in the area of Cuxhaven, Germany.
1930s and 1940s
*In April 1933 Gerhard Zucker launched a mail rocket, which was to fly from Duhnen to the island of Neuwerk, but which fell to E ...
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20171108000000/http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/mohocket.htm
Sounding rockets of Germany