Rockets Send Payloads Up

Rockets Send Payloads Up

The 27th successive successful firing of rocket payloads built by the Superior Engineering Co. of Ann Arbor was announced today by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

NASA also successfully launched last night a balloon payload built by the High Altitude Laboratory of the University of Michigan in conjunction with the two rocket flights.

The rocket payloads, launched from Fort Churchill, Manitoba, and Wallops Island, Va., eject a series of high explosive charges to generate sound waves which are monitored by ground-based microphones.

Measuring the speed of the sound waves reveals information on temperatures and winds in the upper atmosphere.

The rocket flights were preceded by the balloon launch. A large balloon ejects small, lightweight spherical balloons which are tracked by radar during descent. The rate of descent yields data on the density of the atmosphere and wind currents.

Superior Engineering now has provided 37 successful payloads out of 39 since January, 1962. The company is now preparing similar payloads for July flights scheduled by NASA in Sweden, in cooperation with the Swedish Space Committee.