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A Magellan Aerospace (Magellan) Black Brant IX rocket was successfully launched from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., in the early morning of Aug 28, 2014 at 5:40 a.m. The launch mission was a test of a new sub-payload deployment method for suborbital rockets and also included the release of vapor tracers in space. The launch and vapor tracers, which help measure the wind in the transition region between the Earth’s atmosphere and space, could be seen from as far away as western Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, West Virginia, and Myrtle Beach.
The Black Brant was launched by Orbital Sciences Corporation under contract from the NASA Sounding Rockets Program Office.
The Magellan facility in Winnipeg, Man is a pioneer in Canada’s space industry and has been designing and manufacturing Black Brant sounding rockets for more than 50 years. The Black Brant is a solid propellant rocket system available in single or multistage configurations and is one of the most successful sounding rockets ever built. Black Brant rockets carry instrumentation into suborbital flight to take measurements and perform scientific experiments.
The first launch of a Magellan designed and built Black Brant took place on June 15, 1962 at Wallops Island, Va. To date, over 1,000 Black Brant rockets have been launched from every continent other than Antarctica, with a vehicle success rate of over 98 per cent. It is the most reliable, cost-effective and quick system for space physics, atmospheric chemistry, astronomy, and microgravity in the world.
