Editing Sounding rocket (section)

{{Short description|Rocket designed to take measurements during its flight}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}
[[File:Black Brant.jpg|thumb|A [[Black Brant (rocket)|Black Brant]] XII being launched from [[Wallops Flight Facility]]]]
A '''sounding rocket''' or '''rocketsonde''', sometimes called a '''research rocket''' or a '''suborbital rocket''', is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its [[sub-orbital spaceflight|sub-orbital]] flight. The rockets are often used to launch instruments from 48 to 145&nbsp;km (30 to 90 miles)<ref>[http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/files/SRHB.pdf nasa.gov] NASA Sounding Rocket Program Handbook, June 2005, p. 1 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20241223111544/https://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/files/SRHB.pdf Archive link], December 2024)</ref> above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between [[weather balloon]]s and [[satellite]]s; the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40&nbsp;km (25 miles) and the minimum for satellites is approximately 121&nbsp;km (75 miles).<ref name="overview">{{cite web |date=24 July 2006 |title=NASA Sounding Rocket Program Overview |url=http://rscience.gsfc.nasa.gov/srrov.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241127192630/http://rscience.gsfc.nasa.gov/srrov.html |archive-date=27 November 2024 |access-date=10 October 2006 |work=NASA Sounding Rocket Program |publisher=NASA}}</ref>

Due to their suborbital flight profile, sounding rockets are often much simpler than counterparts built for orbital flight.<ref name="overview" /> Certain sounding rockets have an [[apogee]] between 1,000 and 1,500&nbsp;km (620 and 930 miles), such as the [[Black Brant (rocket)|Black Brant X and XII]], which is the maximum apogee of their class. For certain purposes, sounding rockets may be flown to altitudes as high as 3,000 kilometers (1860 miles) to allow observing times of around 40 minutes to provide geophysical observations of the magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere and mesosphere.<ref name="highaltitude">{{cite web |date=29 September 2024 |title=High Altitude Sounding Rocket |url=https://rscience.gsfc.nasa.gov/keydocs/HASR_Slides.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241127192906/https://rscience.gsfc.nasa.gov/keydocs/HASR_Slides.pdf |archive-date=27 November 2024 |access-date=29 September 2024 |work=NASA Sounding Rocket Program |publisher=NASA}}</ref>