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The Terrier Orion
The Terrier Orion 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 ...
is a combination of the Terrier booster rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
with the Orion rocket used as a second stage. This spin stabilized configuration is most often used by the Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
, who operate out of the Wallops Flight Facility
Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard ...
for sounding rocket operations. The system supports payloads ranging from , and is capable of achieving altitudes as high as , but at least , depending on payload size.
Technical details
The Terrier Orion system is designed to be rail launched, and can be supported at most fixed and mobile launch sites. The Terrier Mk 12 Mod 1 or Mk 70 rocket used for the first stage uses an diameter motor along with cruciform configured tail fins. The Improved Orion motor used in the second stage is in diameter and long. The system typically uses spin motors and has a total weight of approximately , excluding payload. The Improved Orion motor uses a "bi-phase propellant" system which provides it with around of thrust during the first four seconds of motor burn. The thrust then tails off to approximately of thrust until burnout occurs at around 25 seconds. The fins are normally configured so that the rocket will have a stabilizing spin rate of approximately four cycles per second.See also
* Terrier Oriole * Terrier MalemuteReferences
External links
{{commons category-inline, Terrier Orion Sounding rockets of the United States