A relatively small, uncrewed launch vehicle that flies a parabolic suborbital trajectory to take measurements in the upper atmosphere or briefly expose payloads to microgravity. They typically reach altitudes between 50 and 1,500 kilometers before falling back to Earth. Researchers rely on them as a cheap, fast way to test spaceflight hardware or gather atmospheric data without the expense of an orbital launch.
Heard on the job
The payload for the sounding rocket needs to survive a 15-G acceleration off the rail.
Also heard as
- research rocket