This morning at 07:56 CEST, the REXUS 3 student rocket was successfully launched from the Esrange launch facility in Sweden. The launch had been delayed by one day due to unfavourable weather conditions. REXUS is a project of EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC Esrange) and the German Aerospace Center DLR's MORABA Mobile Rocket Base.The REXUS launch vehicle - an improved Orion Rocket consisting of an unguided solid-propellant single stage - reached an altitude of 95 kilometres after a total engine burn time of 25 seconds. The rocket travelled 70 kilometres downrange and returned to ground safely by parachute. Later today it will be recovered by helicopter.
A first attempt to launch REXUS 3 took place in the early morning of 4 April; due to persistent snow fall, the operation was delayed.
Detailed planning and weather play key roles
"One has to be very lucky to achieve a launch in the very first count down. All systems have to be in a 'go' condition and then the weather also has to be favourable," said Peter Turner, Head of DLR's MORABA Mobile Rocket Base team, speaking by phone from Esrange.
The REXUS program (Rocket-borne EXperiments for University Students) is an annual sounding rocket program for German and Swedish university students and aims to provide practical experience from a real space project. REXUS is a cooperative programme implemented by the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) together with DLR's MORABA Mobile Rocket Base and is financed by the Swedish National Space Board and DLR.
The basic idea behind REXUS is to provide an experimental space platform for students in the field of aerospace technology. "Besides additional study motivation, the students also gain experience in scientific experimental probe design, project team work and management which are important knowledge for their future careers," says Dr Olle Norberg, Head of the Esrange Space Centre.
REXUS supports innovative student experiments
REXUS launches are conducted from Sweden's Esrange Space Centre, located near Kiruna.
The rocket can achieve a peak acceleration during the boost phase of 21g, or 21 times the force of Earth's gravity at sea level. Today's REXUS 3 mission carried six innovative student experiments covering atmospheric science, aerospace engineering, particle physics and micro-electromechanical devices, as well as a camera.
DLR's MORABA department supports national and international space projects as well as the operation of sounding rockets and balloons for scientific applications in the areas of aeronomy, astronomy, magnetospheric physics, geophysics and atmospheric physics and chemistry.
The MORABA team also supports technological and biological experiments under micro-gravity conditions, typically for 3- to 15-minute duration, the testing of newly developed experiments and technologies for satellites or the International Space Station (ISS) and the development and production of mechanical and electronic sub-systems for sounding rockets, which are not commercially available.
In addition to microgravity research conducted via REXUS, DLR conducts ongoing microgravity research via the TEXUS science programme, which also includes periodic rocket launches from Kiruna. TEXUS (German abbreviation for DLR's microgravity experiments) is jointly operated by DLR and the European Space Agency, and provides several minutes of weightlessness for automated experiments related to materials science, biology and physics.
This week's REXUS launch also serves as a test launch in support of the upcoming Maxus 7 project, planned for launch on 2 May 2006. Maxus is Europe's largest sounding rocket and provides a valuable microgravity experimental environment for 12-14 minutes.
Esrange, SSC's launch facility near Kiruna, is an international centre for peaceful exploration of space. Customers include individual scientists within space-related disciplines and international space organisations such as ESA, CNES (France's space agency), DLR, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA.