| RX | |||
| Designer: | National Institute of Aeronautics and Space | ||
| Country: | Indonesia | ||
| Spacecraft Type: | Solid-fuel rockets | ||
| Capacities: | |||
| Status: | Under development | ||
| Stagedata: | |||
The RX rocket family (Roket Eksperimental, English: Experimental Rocket) is a series of solid-fuel rockets developed by the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN).
They are simply named by their diameter in millimeters; for example, the RX-250 has a diameter of 250mm.[1] The propellant used is HTPB-based composite propellant.
This family is composed of:[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
| Version | Diameter (mm) | Length (m) | Thrust (kN) | Burn time (s) | Specific impulse (s) | Propellant mass (kg) | Total mass (kg) | Payload (kg) | Flights | Years active | Apogee reached (km) | Range reached (km) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RX-75 | 75 | ||||||||||||
| RX-100 | 100 | 1.90 | 2.5 | 30 | 7 | 11 | |||||||
| RX-1220 | 122 | 19.6 | 2015-2019 | 25 | |||||||||
| RX-150 | 150 | ||||||||||||
| RX-250 | 250 | 5.30 | 53 | 6.0 | 220 | 300 | 30–60 | 8 | 1987–2007 | 70–100 | |||
| RX-320 | 320 | 4.74 | 52 | 9.0 | 220 | 371 | 532 | 3 | 2008–2014 | 40–42 | |||
| RX-420 | 420 | 94 | 12.3 | 220 | 425 | 1 | 2009 | 43 | |||||
| RX-450 | 450 | 7.11 | 126 | 19.5 | 230 | 757-765 | 1718 | 5 | 2015-2020 | 44-84 | 129 | ||
| RX-550 | 550 | 255 | 14 | 240 | 1519 | ||||||||
| RX-750 | 750 | ||||||||||||
| RX-980 | 980 |
Note: Characteristics in italics are design values, they have not been measured yet.
RX-250 was launched eight times from 1987 to 2007.[7] RX-320 was launched twice in 2008[8] and once again in 2014.[9] RX-420 flew just once in 2009;[10] it is superseded by RX-450 which was launched on 13 May 2015.[11] [12]
, the next booster version RX-550 is under construction; the larger ones are only on the drawing board.
In 2017 successful launches of RX 450 and RX 1220 were carried out from the Space and Atmospheric Observation & Technology Testing Center at Garut, West Java.[13] The RX 1220 is a based on the R-HAN122 B.
Two RX-1220 rockets were launched at the Karang Papak Air Force Base on December 23, 2018.[14]
Once the solid boosters are fully qualified, LAPAN plans to assemble several of them into multi-stage rockets called Roket Pengorbit Satelit or RPS. Four staging configurations have been retained so far:[15]
Earlier plans for the Pengorbitan-1 and -2 orbital launch vehicles (RPS-420s) were based on the RX-420 engine which was superseded by the RX-450., integration work is proceeding on variants 3a and 3b, whose engines have all been successfully flight-qualified.
Since 2019, LAPAN's rocket division PUSTEKROKET has collaborated with AASPT and CGWIC of China in designing newer multiple stage sounding rockets. The new rockets will be called RX-452 which combined 400mm of first stage, and 450mm of second stage. The design is based on TK-32 sounding rocket as well as RX-450. It is expected the newer design to be able to reach above 100km (100miles), simulation showed the rocket is able to reach 200km (100miles).[17]
