Sounding Rockets
Q. Which of the following are uses of Sounding Rockets?
1) Testing new components and equipment
2) Space research
3) To test ways to travel faster than speed of sound- Published on 26 Sep 16a. 1, 2
b. 2, 3
c. 1, 3
d. All of the above
ANSWER: 1, 2
- Sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research.
- They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.
- Sounding rockets made it possible to probe the atmosphere in situ using rocket-borne instrumentation.
- With the establishment of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1963 at Thumba, a location close to the magnetic equator, there was a quantum jump in the scope for aeronomy and atmospheric sciences in India. Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme is for developing Sounding Rockets.
- The sounding rocket programme was the bedrock on which the edifice of launch vehicle technology in ISRO could be built.
