A rocket made by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) students was successfully launched yesterday morning from the national launch site in Syuhai Village (旭海) in Pingtung County.
The solid-propellant rocket, with the code “SSTO” and made by 11 students enrolled in the space systems integration course of NYCU’s Institute of Space System Engineering as part of their project “Macaran,” is 2.76m long, 16.4cm in diameter and weighs 28.4kg.
The rocket launch follows another rocket launch at the same site last month, which was jointly developed by the NYCU and the Taiwan Space Agency.
Photo courtesy of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Fifteen seconds after its launch at 7:36am, the rocket reached its maximum altitude of approximately 1km and opened its parachute, with a total flight time of 2 minutes, 2 seconds.
The rocket landed in the sea and was towed back to land, marking the first recovery of an entire rocket launched from the site.
Separately, Tamkang University at 6:28am yesterday launched its third scientific sounding rocket from the same site.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Space Agency
“Polaris” is 3.08m in length, with a diameter of 16.32cm and weighs 58kg.
It has an estimated altitude of 5.8km, an average thrust of 2,765 newtons and a maximum thrust of 3,734 newtons, with a burn time of 9.5 seconds and a total impulse of 26,481 newton-seconds.
Polaris was equipped with two scientific payloads, a tuned mass damper and a magnetic position sensor module, as part of a pioneering experiment in the development of sounding rockets, said Wang Yi-ren (王怡仁), director of the rocket project and a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Tamkung University.
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