Taurus Nike Tomahawk TNT
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Taurus Nike Tomahawk TNT is a sounding rocket which was first built in 1983. When it was in operation it was used to explore the upper atmosphere.
[edit] Background
Taurus Nike Tomahawk TNT was created by WFF and has had 17 missions with only one failure (success rate of 94.12%). It was retired in 1991. A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying suborbital rocket, it is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust from within a rocket engine. Often the term rocket is also used to mean a rocket engine 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 rocket was commonly used to take readings or carry instruments from 50 to 1500 km above the surface of the Earth.
The Taurus Nike Tomahawk consists of a solid-fuel rocket motor and a payload cargo transport. The average flight time was 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.
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