| Orion | |
| Upright: | 1 |
| Country-Origin: | United States |
| Manufacturer: | NASA |
| Function: | sounding rocket[1] |
| Diameter: | 0.35 m |
| Sites: | Wallops, White Sands, Poker Flat, Andoya, Esrange, Barreira do Inferno |
| Height: | 5.60 m |
| Stage1thrust: | 7 kN |
| Stages: | 1 |
Orion is the designation of a small American sounding rocket. The Orion has a length of 5.60 meters, a diameter of 0.35 m, a launch weight of 400 kg, a launch thrust of 7 kN and a ceiling of 85 kilometers. The Orion, built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, is also used as an upper stage of sounding rockets, usually paired with a Terrier missile as the first stage,[2] [3] [4] although Nike, Taurus and VS-30 rockets are also used.[5]
Two Orion versions exist:
The sounding rocket is launched from Wallops Flight Facility, White Sands, Poker Flat Rocket Range, Andoya Rocket Range, Esrange and Barreira do Inferno.[6]
A lightning storm over the Wallops launch pad on 9 June 1987 ignited a NASA Orion rocket and 2 other sounding rockets. The Orion flew horizontally about 300 feet into the ocean. The sounding rockets rose to around 15,000 feet altitude, then fell about 2 miles from the launch pad. No persons were hurt in the incident.[7]