Isro does 100 consecutive launches of Rohini-200 sounding rocket

Rohini-200 was a precursor to development of heavier rockets such as PSLV, GSLV and GSLV-MkIII

India’s space agency completed its 100th successful consecutive launch of Rohini-200 (RH-200), one of the series of sounding rockets that was a precursor for the development of heavier rockets such as PSLV, GSLV and GSLV-MkIII.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) tests the sounding rockets to measure the atmosphere and in recent years has been firing these rockets to conduct experiments to understand monsoon better.

Isro’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram designs these rockets and launches them from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), the spaceport on the outskirts of Kerala capital, where India’s space journey began in 1962.

The 100th consecutive successful launch, done last week, is a milestone for Isro. “It demonstrated the high level of quality and reliability, which have been built into this tiny rocket,” Isro put a note on its site. So far, over 1545 RH-200 launches have been completed.

The rocket, having a diameter of 200 mm and length 3590 mm, weighs 108 kg and carries a 12 kg chaff payload. The payload gets ejected at an altitude of 70 km and scientific information pertaining to wind and wind velocity will be obtained from 70 km to 20 km. Balloon and surface MET sensors will provide data up to ground surface.

RH-200, during its flight, encounters severe environment peaks and is an ideal platform to assess new technologies, testing their airworthiness by exposing them to hostile environment.

Many technologies like application of super capacitors for pyrotechnic initiation, micro centralised encoder, sequencer with solid state switches replacing costly electromechanical relays, programmable DC-DC converter, MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) based angular rate sensor, etc., have been tested for survivability and air worthiness in RH-200 rockets, it said.