Red Kite Qualification and Application Spectrum

Abstract

The Red Kite© is a commercially available, serially produced solid propellant sounding rocket motor in the class of one ton of net explosive mass. It was developed in response to a sustained demand from the scientific community for high performance sounding rocket vehicles. The Red Kite is primarily designed to be employed as a powerful booster for military surplus and commercial second stages, but can also be used as a sustainer when boosted by either an even larger motor or by another Red Kite. Typical payloads will range between 200 to 600 kg. When used in a mission design tailored to microgravity research, typical apogees range between 250 to 300 km, while the needs of the hypersonic community can be met by a suppressed trajectory design, typically providing horizontal flight at Mach numbers between 6 to 9 in the altitude band 30 to 60 km. Following a Phase A definition study in 2017, the German Aerospace Center DLR contracted Bayern-Chemie GmbH in 2020 for the development and manufacturing of the Red Kite motor, initially providing 30 serial units. Subsequent to preliminary design and materials selection phase, ground testing of mechanical, pyrotechnical and electrical subsystems was conducted. Finally, two full scale qualification motors were successfully test-fired in August 2023 at ESRANGE Space Center, with the test models tempered to the upper and lower limits of the operational temperature envelope after having completed a rigorous protocol of thermal cycling and mechanical vibration representative of loads to be expected during handling, transport and flight. Following the successful qualification, serial production was initiated and serial motor number one released for a maiden flight from Andøya Space Center in November 2023, proving the design in flight successfully. The paper gives a summary of the motor performance, aspects of the system design, the qualification program and its application spectrum in active and future sounding rocket vehicles.