Terasca, or Terrier-ASROC-Cajun, was an American three-stage

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 and launched by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Derived from a combination of the

Terrier Terrier (from Latin ''terra'', 'earth') is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. Terrier breeds vary ...

ASROC The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...

and

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

rockets, three launches were attempted during 1959, but only one was successful.

Design and development

The Terrier-ASROC-Cajun ("Terasca") rocket was developed during early 1959 by the

Naval Ordnance Test Station Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Installat ...

, located at China Lake, California, to fill a U.S. Navy requirement for a three-stage sounding rocket, intended to launch experimental payloads for conducting high-altitude research.''The Rocketeer'', Nov. 1993 The rocket utilised a combination of existing missiles in its construction; the first stage was a Terrier

surface-to-air A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

missile; an ASROC

anti-submarine rocket An anti-submarine missile is a standoff anti-submarine weapon. Often a variant of anti-ship missile designs, an anti-submarine systems typically use a jet or rocket engine, to deliver an explosive warhead aimed directly at a submarine, a depth ...

made up the second stage, while a Cajun sounding rocket was utilised as a third stage.Parsch 2007 The Terrier first stage produced

thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that syst ...

, while the ASROC second stage provided , and the third-stage Cajun motor had a thrust rated at . The theoretical

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

for Terasca was ; it could carry a scientific payload of up to .Corliss 1971, p.83.

Operational history

Three launch attempts of the Terasca missile were made from the launch facility at

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...

during 1959, utilising the

Western Launch and Test Range The Western Range (WR) is the space launch range that supports the major launch head at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Managed by the Space Launch Delta 30, the WR extends from the West Coast of the United States to 90° East longitude in the ...

. The first launch attempt took place on May 1; this launch was a failure. A second launch attempt on June 26, however, was successful, with the rocket reaching an apogee of . A third launch, attempted on August 12, however, was also a failure; following the third launch, the Terasca program came to a close.

Launch history

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * * {{Cajun rockets Sounding rockets of the United States Equipment of the United States Navy