Mesquito

The Mesquito is an American sounding rocket vehicle developed for the NASA Sounding Rocket Program on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Mesquito was developed to provide rocket-borne measurements of the mesospheric region of the upper atmosphere. An area of great science interest is in the 82–95 km region, where the conventional understanding of atmospherics physics is being challenged.

Mesquito
The Mesquito sounding rocket
FunctionSounding rocket
ManufacturerNSROC
Country of originUnited States
Launch history
StatusActive
Launch sitesLC-2, Wallops Island
Total launches2
Successes1
Failures1
First flight6 May 2008

The Mesquito is a two-stage sounding rocket using a 9-inch-diameter (230 mm) solid propellant rocket motor as the first-stage propulsion device. The non-propulsive second-stage dart contains a free-flying structural body that includes an avionics suite and an experiment space with interface.

The maiden flight occurred on 6 May 2008, from LC-2 at the Wallops Flight Facility.

Launch history
Date Time (GMT) S/N Mission Outcome Remarks
2008-05-06 18:00-20:00 12.065 Test Success Maiden flight[1]
2008-05-07 18:00-20:00 12.066 Test Failure Loss of control following burnout[1]
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References
  1. Flowers, Betty; Rebecca Powell (2008-05-12). "Inside Wallops" (PDF). Volume XX-08, Issue 17. NASA Wallops Flight Facility. p. 2. Retrieved 2008-05-15.

"Sounding Rocket Technology Development". NASA. Archived from the original on 2008-05-20.


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