sounding rocket

American  

noun

1. a rocket equipped with instruments for making meteorological observations in the upper atmosphere.

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Etymology

Origin of sounding rocket

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

The experiment took place on 1 October 2022 -- on board of the sounding rocket TEXUS-57 that was launched from the Esrange Space Center, 40 kilometers east of Kiruna in Sweden.

From Science Daily • Jun. 4, 2024

It turned out to be a sounding rocket launched from Wallops Island, Va., as part of research for Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.

From Washington Post • Mar. 8, 2023

The answer lay in its UV spectrum, which is difficult to capture from a sounding rocket.

From Science Magazine • Jul. 18, 2019

The company was the first private company to reach space in the southern hemisphere in 2009 with a suborbital sounding rocket.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 29, 2014

Or, for an admittedly steep $1 million to $2 million, researchers can put automated equipment on a sounding rocket that provides up to 20 minutes of microgravity far above Earth's atmosphere.

From Nature • May 4, 2011