Waxwing (rocket motor)
Waxwing was a British solid rocket motor used for apogee kick as the 3rd (upper) stage of the Black Arrow satellite launch vehicles. Waxwing was used to successfully place the Prospero X-3 satellite into low Earth orbit on 28 October 1971, Britain's only satellite launch on an indigenously-developed launch vehicle.
Another use of Waxwing was to increase the velocity of test re-entry vehicles on Black Knight during tests for the Blue Streak missile.[1]
Design and development
Design was by the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott and it was manufactured by Bristol Aerojet.[2] The casing was spherical and the propellant grain used an internal star profile to control the initial burn rate.
- Specifications
- Thrust: 29.4 kN[3][4]
- Specific impulse: 2700 m/s (278 s) [3]
- Burn time: 28 s
40 seconds [4] - Weight:[3]
- Gross mass: 397 kg (875 lb)
- Unfuelled mass: 87 kg (192 lb)
- Dimensions:[5]
- Diameter: 28 in (0.71 m)
- Overall length: 52 in (1.3 m)
- Nozzle length: 22 in (0.56 m)
- Nozzle diameter: 18 in (0.46 m)
gollark: f i b o n a c c i
gollark: Besides, this is slower.
gollark: I mean, this is a full program...
gollark: ```haskell#!/usr/bin/stack{- stack --resolver lts-12.13 --install-ghc runghc --package Hclip --package deepseq-}import Data.Charimport Control.DeepSeqimport System.Hclipevaluate x = x `deepseq` xmain = do input <- evaluate <$> getContents let text = concatMap toFib $ zip input [0..] setClipboard text putStr textfibs :: [Int]fibs = 0 : 1 : zipWith (+) fibs (tail fibs)toFib :: (Char, Int) -> StringtoFib (c, i) = replicate (fibs !! i) ' ' ++ [c, "\n"]```
gollark: *opened haskell*
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Waxwing rocket motor. |
- "Waxwing rocket motor".
- "Point of the Arrow" FLIGHT International, 11 November 1971
- "Black Arrow-3". astronautix.com.
- Black Arrow exhibit, Science Museum, London
- "Waxwing dimensional drawing". Space UK.
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