what is a sounding rocket?

Answer 1

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying suborbital rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its flight. The origin of the term comes from the nautical term to take a sounding, meaning to take a measurement.

The rockets are commonly used to take readings or carry instruments from 50 to 1500 km above the surface of the Earth, the region above the maximum altitude for balloons (~30 km) and below the minimum for satellites (~475 km). Certain sounding rockets, such as the Black Brant X and XII, have an apogee between 1,000 and 1,500 km, well above Low Earth Orbit. A more commonly flown sounding rocket of the year 2006 includes military surplus rocket motors. NASA's routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boosted Improved Orion lofting 600-1000 lbm payloads into the exoatmospheric region between 100 and 200 km.

A common sounding rocket consists of a solid-fuel rocket motor and a payload. The freefall part of the flight is an elliptic trajectory with vertical major axis, and the average flight time is less than forty minutes. The rocket consumes its fuel on the first stage of the rising part of the flight, then separates and falls away, leaving the payload to complete the arc and return to the ground with a parachute.

Answer 2

very small rocket that goes very high and leaves a trail of smoke behind that will show the wind patterns.