La NASA utilizzando i motori avanzati dalla dismissione del Basic Hawk (e successive versioni) ha realizzato un razzo
(sounding rocket, credo possa essere banalmente tradotto come "razzo sonda") utilizzato per inviare ogni sorta di strumentazione
nello spazio ed esperimenti scientifici vari. A quanto pare viene chiamato Orion ed è tuttora ampiamente utilizzato.
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/orion.htm
Siccome non si butta via niente hanno anche realizzato una versione a due stadi utilizzando per il primo stadio un booster
del Nike Ajax. E' nato così il Nike Hawk alias Nike Orion. Dovrebbe avere questo aspetto. Non buttano via proprio niente,
notare il lanciatore di provenienza navale, probabilmente del Sistema Terrier (esiste anche il Terrier Orion).
A quanto pare la parentela fra Nike e Hawk è più stretta di quanto immaginato
" ... Nike-Orion
In the early 1970s, the U.S. Army replaced its MIM-23A Hawk surface-to-air missiles with the improved MIM-23B version,
and thousands of Aerojet M22E8 solid-propellant rocket motors of MIM-23A missiles became surplus.
The NASA realized that these motors would be useful upper stages for sounding rockets, and designed a payload section,
new fins and a new tail around the motor casing. As a sounding rocket stage, the Hawk motors were called Orion.
After a few Hawk/Orion single-stage firings in 1974, NASA launched the first two-stage Nike-Orion on 9 September 1975.
NASA has since launched more than 175 Nike-Orions and is still using it today.
...
The Nike-Orion was a two-stage, unguided, fin stabilized rocket system which utilized a Nike M5-El (or M88)
first stage booster and a surplus Army Orion rocket motor for the second stage propulsion.
The Nike motor had three equally spaced unmodified Ajax fins, and the Orion motor had four fins on the aft end
arranged in a cruciform configuration to provide stability. The first stage Nike booster had an action time of 3.2 seconds.
The second stage ignited 9 seconds after liftoff and had an action time of 32 seconds.
The standard payload for the Nike-Orion had a principal diameter of 36 cm and utilized various nose cone fineness ratios.
The normal payload length varied from about 1.8 to 3.0 m although this was not the maximum envelope.
Payloads from 15 to 44 cm diameter were also flown on the Nike-Orion.
Standard hardware included a separable clamshell nose cone and an Orion Standard Ignition System.
Separation systems could be provided to separate the payload from the motor during ascent ..."
Edited by ASIop - 20/11/2020, 00:42
