Skylark (rocket)

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Launch of a Skylark (1961)
Last start of a Skylark (2005)

Skylark (German skylark ) is the name of a historical British sounding rocket .

history

The Skylark was developed from 1955 as part of a British space program. In this early period the level of development was comparable to that of American and Soviet missiles. The Skylark was very popular among young scientists because it made it possible to develop and conduct an experiment within three years and to do a doctorate with the evaluation of the data . Since then, numerous experiments have been carried out with the Skylark.

However, state funding for the program was canceled at the end of the 1970s, as it was believed that scientific institutions would in future prefer to have their instruments brought into space by the space shuttle . However, it was assumed that the new US space shuttle would carry out regular and very frequent flights, so that there would also be enough space for long-term experiments . The Skylark program was first given to British Aerospace , then to Matra Marconi Space , until it came to the small privately financed company Sounding Rocket Services . Skylark flights were discontinued in 2005, 50 years after the program began. The operating company will then use the American Oriole missiles. These are slightly larger, more modern and have a larger payload, but are also more expensive.

technology

The Skylark was 7.6 m long, had a diameter of 0.44 m and had a fin span of 0.96 m. She was powered by 840 kilograms of solid fuel. To launch the Skylark in the original version, a 50 meter high tower was necessary for guidance in the launch phase, while later versions of this rocket could also be launched from a simple mount .

The first Skylark was able to lift 45 kg to an altitude of 150 km. The last variant, Skylark 12, was built in 1976, was a three-stage rocket and could carry a payload of 200 kg at an altitude of 576 km. The highest flight made with a Skylark even reached an altitude of 857 km on September 3, 1988. The versions Skylark 14 to 17 were planned, but were never produced.

Flights

The Skylark was first launched from Woomera in Australia on February 13, 1957 . 263 more launches followed by August 1987. Other starting places were:

The 442nd and final flight took off from Esrange ( Sweden ) on May 2, 2005 . It consisted of a Skylark 7 and carried two biological and three physical experiments with a 250 kg payload on a suborbital orbit at an altitude of up to 250 km.

Web links

Commons : Skylark  - collection of images, videos and audio files