RH300 sounding rocket launched

The RH300 sounding rocket, developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre as part of a study to enrich available atmospheric data, was launched tonight from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station here.

This was the 21st launch of RH300 sounding rocket, a release from VSSC said.

The shores of Thumba reverberated with the thunderous boom of the rocket propulsion, as the sight of white and blue trail pattern formed by the TMA payload brought jubilation to the scientists and engineers who had gathered at Thumba station to watch the launch, a VSSC press release said.

As planned, the RH300 sounding rocket soared into the sky precisely at 19.15 hrs, flawlessly executing the Sounding Rocket Experiment programme held as part of a study undertaken by VSSC.

Under the programme, the RH-300 MKII sounding rocket is utilised to study the Equatorial E and lower ionosphere regions of the atmosphere.

The study will enrich available atmospheric data and refine the models used for tropical weather prediction, it added.

VSSC Director S Somanathan, who witnessed the launch, exhorted the scientists to devise many more such experiments utilising TERLS range to its full potential.

The skies of the state capital and nearby areas witnessed the spectacular display of a long trail of interleaved pattern of white and blue light due to chemi-luminescence, a result of the experiment.

Photographic capturing of the trail was arranged from four different stations in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli.

The objective of the experiment is to measure neutral wind in the dynamo region (80-120 km) of equatorial ionosphere using the indigenously developed Electron Density and Neutral Wind Probe (ENWi) and perform cross-validation using an independent Tri Methyl Aluminium (TMA) release technique.

Atmospheric studies with TMA were done in the 1960's, utilising sounding rockets of foreign countries and the first launch was on May 2, 1965 using a Centaure rocket.

After a long gap, the TMA experiment has now been attempted with indigenously made payload and rocket.