Science and Technology
In News: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hopes to achieve a remarkable feat — the 200th successful launch of the Rohini RH-200 sounding rocket in a row.
- It has completed 198 consecutive successful flights and the 199th and 200th launch are planned to take place during 2022.
- ISRO has launched more than 1,600 RH-200 rockets so far. The 100th consecutive successful mission happened in 2015.
About the rocket:
- Sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research developed the ISRO.
- RH-200 is a 3.5-metre-tall two-stage rocket capable of climbing to a height of 70 km bearing scientific payloads.
- The first and second stages of RH-200 are powered by solid motors.
- The ‘200’ in the name denotes the diameter of the rocket in mm.
- Other operational Rohini variants are RH-300 Mk-II and RH-560 Mk-III.
- The first RH-200 to use a new propellant based on hydroxyl-terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) was successfully flown in 2020, while the previous versions had used a polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based propellant.
About sounding rockets:
- Sounding rockets have been used for a variety of experiments, including those on phenomena related to eclipses.
- The first sounding rocket was the American Nike-Apache – launched in 1963.
- The ISRO launched its own version – Rohini RH-75 – in 1967.
- The sounding rocket programme was the bedrock on which the edifice of launch vehicle technology was built.
- Today, these small rockets are launched both from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
Source: The Hindu
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