Scaling new heights: Sounding rocket experiment successful

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At precisely 7.15 pm Friday, the RH300 rocket rose swiftly to the night sky from its launching pad at Thumba leaving in its wake a glittering white-and-blue trail. Much to the thrill of the scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the SOUnding Rocket EXperiment (SOUREX) undertaken to enrich atmospheric data and finetune the models used for tropical weather prediction was a stupendous success. 

VSSC director S Somanath congratulated the VSSC teams involved in the experiment and asked them to devise more experiments to tap the full potential of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).

Its proximity to the magnetic equator offered ample scientific opportunities. The rocket’s payload consisted of the  Electron Density and Neutral Wind Probe (ENWi) developed by VSSC’s Space Physics Laboratory. 

The results were cross-validated using an independent Tri Methyl Aluminium (TMA) release technique which left the blazing trail in the night sky. The experiment also saw the 21st launch of RH300 sounding rocket developed by VSSC.