RH-75 (Sounding Rocket)
Rh-75 is a Sounding Rocket from the Rohini Family which has a series of sounding rockets developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) for meteorological and atmospheric study. The rockets in this series are designated with the letters RH (for “Rohini”). These Sounding rockets of the Rohini family are capable of bearing 2 to 200kg between altitudes of 100 to 500 kilometers.
Sounding rockets are solid propellant rockets with one or two stages used to examine the upper atmospheric regions and research space. they also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites. The launch of the RH-75 from Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 20 November 1967, marked the beginning of the Indian Space Programme. Sounding rockets made it possible to probe the atmosphere in situations using rocket-borne instrumentation. RH-75 was the first truly Indian-sounding rocket, which was followed by RH-100 and RH-125 rockets.
Specification of RH-75
· Gross mass:- The gross mass of RH-75 was 8kg (18 lb).
· Height:- The height of this sounding rocket RH-75 is 1.50 m (4.90 ft).
· Diameter:- The diameter was 75mm.
· Apogee:- The apogee was 10 kilometres.
· Payload:-RH-75 carried a payload of 1kg.
Till today date, 1545 RH-200 rockets have been launched. On 15 July 2015, the 100th consecutive successful RH-200 rocket was launched. After RH-75, ISRO developed and launched many sounding rockets under the Rohini series like RH-100, RH-200, RH-300-Mk-II, and RH-560-MK-II. The number in the name of the rocket indicates its thickness or diameter.
With the successful launching of Rohini 75 Vikram Sarabhai aimed at collaborating with the French and other nations to develop more accurate knowledge along with technical training in rocket manufacturing procedures. The agreement signed with the French also helped the Indian scientists to develop second-stage rockets.
