TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE BRAZILIAN SOUNDING ROCKETS

This paper presents a piece of information about the Brazilian sounding rockets manufactured and operated by the Instituto de Aeroncititica e Espaco (DCTA/IAE), a governmental institution established for developing scientific and technological solutions to strengthen the Brazilian aerospace knowledge, through the research, development, innovation, launch operations and technology services in aeronautical and space systems. In the past, Brazilian sounding rockets were traditionally applied in local researches of high atmosphere layers and ionosphere. The continuous development of knowledge demanded new mission scopes promoting an institutional interest of DCTA/IAE to fulfill these new lines of application. Resulting from this scenario, the sounding rockets VS 30, VSB-30 and VS-40 started to be successful used for Brazilian and foreign institutions performing a wide range of important technological and scientific aerospace missions.