Rockets Carry U-M Payloads

Rockets Carry U-M Payloads

Rocket experts from the Space Physics Laboratory of the University’s electrical engineering department reported successful launchings this week of U-M-built scientific payloads in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sounding rockets.

David R. Taeusch, U-M research physicist at the laboratory, said that he had been notified by phone from Wallops Island, Va., that “all four payloads performed as expected.”

The payloads were launched in pairs of high altitude and low altitude rockets under sponsorship of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The low altitude rockets attained an altitude of 95 miles, measuring total atmospheric density between 20 and 70 miles above the earth. The high altitude rockets carrying thermosphere probes attained an altitude of 200 miles, measuring neutral particle composition, temperature, and electron density at altitudes between 75 and 200 miles.

George R. Carignan, laboratory engineer at the U-M, served as project director for the low altitude probes, while John C. Maurer, also research engineer with the laboratory, was in charge of the high altitude probes.