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First test flight of PERUN rocket demonstrator

BySpaceForest
Perun rocket launch at night.
Perun rocket on Transporter Erector Launcher.
Landing of Perun rocket after a successful launch.

On 25.01.2020, at the military training area in Drawsko Pomorskie, we conducted the first test flight of PERUN rocket demonstrator.

PERUN is a single-stage guided suborbital launch vehicle powered by a hybrid rocket engine and designed to provide high performance at a very low cost of operation. For this test, the 11.5m long launch vehicle with a 0.45m diameter was powered by an SF200 hybrid engine with a total impulse of 200kNs.

The main goals of the test in Drawsko Pomorskie:

  • checking the new mobile rocket launcher
  • performing the start procedure including rocket launch
  • maintaining communication with the rocket and obtaining data from the rocket in real-time using RASEL– a fully autonomous tracking and data transmission system for flying vehicles
  • rocket aerodynamics test during supersonic flight – the second milestone of the Suborbital Inexpensive Rocket project
  • test of the head-body separation system during the flight
  • deploying parachutes at a certain height and landing the rocket
  • recover the rocket and transport it to the company’s headquarters

PERUN launched at 16:48, reached 1 Ma velocity, and an altitude of 9.750 m. All goals have been achieved!