File:Aerobee 150 launch assembly section - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 2012-05-15 (7276434576).jpg

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Booster stage, fins, and launch rail for an Aerobee-150 sounding rocket on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Aerobee was a family of rockets first developed in 1946. They were sounding rockets, which meant that they were not intended to reach orbit. Rather, they were designed to reach high into the atmosphere (between 30 and 950 miles) to gather data and test instruments. Aerobees were built by Aerojet General. Most of them were launched from White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.

The Aerobee was two stage rocket. The first stage was solid-fuel, and the second liquid fuel. The instrument package detached from the rocket at apogee, and its light weight usually allowed it to hover high in the atmosphere for a few moments before gravity took over. When it reached the lower atmospher, a parachute provided a gentle landing.

Aerobees were launched from towers because they were not stable enough until they reached high speed. Only then did their fins become effective in controlling attitude.

The first Aerobee flew on March 5, 1948. A total of 1,037 Aerobees were launched, with the last plunging back to earth on January 17, 1985.

Aerobee-150 could carry a 150-pound instrument package 170 miles into the air. Just 1.2 feet in diameter, it was 31 feet long.
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Source Aerobee 150 launch assembly section - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 2012-05-15
Author Tim Evanson from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Tim Evanson at https://flickr.com/photos/23165290@N00/7276434576 (archive). It was reviewed on 11 February 2018 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

11 February 2018

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current07:29, 11 February 2018Thumbnail for version as of 07:29, 11 February 2018514 × 1,000 (238 KB)Donald Trung (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons

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