Altitude record for a single stage rocket

700km is still well below the 499miles or 795 miles of BK03.

Nicholas Hill


I don't think there's a fair way to avoid counting the sustainers on
Atlas in response to this question: *the rocket couldn't even lift off
without them. * The same goes for aircraft launch.

If we are talking one integral stage, then Maxus seems to have the
record. *A max of 700km *or so leaves far behind the largest single-
stage American rockets I can think of, like Aerobee and Viking, as
well as the maximum reach (about 200 km, IIRC) of any of the V-2s
fired in Germany or in the U.S. *I can't find a number for the single-
stage (unboosted) Black Brandt V, but it's well short of that, I am
sure. I found a Maxus 7 record of 702 km and an estimate for a Maxus 6
at 710, and I think that's likely to be it.
We could build an SSTO rocket (proposed many times, but never deemed
feasible - or, at least, those who have the funds to do it have never
deemed it desirable). *An SSTO would in all likelihood be able to best
the Maxus if you aimed it straight up, but there would be no apparent
reason to fly one that way.

Matt Bille
SciTech News and Comment:

http://mattbille.blogspot.com

Matt wrote:
I don't think there's a fair way to avoid counting the sustainers on
Atlas in response to this question: the rocket couldn't even lift off
without them. The same goes for aircraft launch.

If we are talking one integral stage, then Maxus seems to have the
record. A max of 700km or so leaves far behind the largest single-
stage American rockets I can think of, like Aerobee and Viking, as
well as the maximum reach (about 200 km, IIRC) of any of the V-2s
fired in Germany or in the U.S. I can't find a number for the single-
stage (unboosted) Black Brandt V, but it's well short of that, I am
sure. I found a Maxus 7 record of 702 km and an estimate for a Maxus 6
at 710, and I think that's likely to be it.
We could build an SSTO rocket (proposed many times, but never deemed
feasible - or, at least, those who have the funds to do it have never
deemed it desirable). An SSTO would in all likelihood be able to best
the Maxus if you aimed it straight up, but there would be no apparent
reason to fly one that way.

According to http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/maxus.htm Maxus 6 reached
706 km and Maxus7 750 km.

Another source is http://www.ssc.se/?id=6490 (most likely more reliable
since it is the web site of the launch operator!) where Maxus7 is stated
to reach 704,7 km, thus the Astronautix guys has probably exchanged the
"5" and the "0".

--
th

oops - should be 795km.


On Jun 1, 8:39*am, wrote:
700km is still well below the 499miles or 795 miles of BK03.

Nicholas Hill



I don't think there's a fair way to avoid counting the sustainers on
Atlas in response to this question: *the rocket couldn't even lift off
without them. * The same goes for aircraft launch.

If we are talking one integral stage, then Maxus seems to have the
record. *A max of 700km *or so leaves far behind the largest single-
stage American rockets I can think of, like Aerobee and Viking, as
well as the maximum reach (about 200 km, IIRC) of any of the V-2s
fired in Germany or in the U.S. *I can't find a number for the single-
stage (unboosted) Black Brandt V, but it's well short of that, I am
sure. I found a Maxus 7 record of 702 km and an estimate for a Maxus 6
at 710, and I think that's likely to be it.
We could build an SSTO rocket (proposed many times, but never deemed
feasible - or, at least, those who have the funds to do it have never
deemed it desirable). *An SSTO would in all likelihood be able to best
the Maxus if you aimed it straight up, but there would be no apparent
reason to fly one that way.

Matt Bille
SciTech News and Comment:

http://mattbille.blogspot.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

In sci.space.history message 436257c2-3a02-4531-a6d7-78ac19b2736d@l17g2
000pri.googlegroups.com, Sat, 31 May 2008 15:17:42, Matt
posted:

We could build an SSTO rocket (proposed many times, but never deemed
feasible - or, at least, those who have the funds to do it have never
deemed it desirable). An SSTO would in all likelihood be able to best
the Maxus if you aimed it straight up, but there would be no apparent
reason to fly one that way.


ISTM that an SSTO, operating on a non-rotating atmosphere-free Earth,
and burning all its fuel at zero altitude, would if fired straight up
attain a height of one radius. But I've not recently worked it out in
writing; not have I looked to see whether it's been done in the past.

--
(c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

If www.astronautix.com has it right, then a 1 May 1962 flight of a
single-stage Black Knight configuration, at 795 km, does look like the
record. Congratulations to Nicholas... any other contenders out
there?

But I was wrong - it was BK04, not BK03. Should have checked more
carefully!

wrote:
But I was wrong - it was BK04, not BK03. Should have checked more
carefully!

BK04 reached 803 km in June 1959 according to Astronautix.

--
th

On May 31, 2:03*am, wrote:
I've tried Googling with no success: does anyone know the current
altitude record for a single stage vehicle?

Nicholas Hill

Didn't the old Soviet Union set up some dumb publicity
stunt where they put a cannon in a single stage rocket
and fired a hammer-and-sickle medallion to the surface
of the moon back in the 1950's? Would that propaganda
stunt count as a single stage ROCKET, because the other
propulsion was a gun?

Roger Coppock wrote:
On May 31, 2:03 am, wrote:
I've tried Googling with no success: does anyone know the current
altitude record for a single stage vehicle?

Nicholas Hill

Didn't the old Soviet Union set up some dumb publicity
stunt where they put a cannon in a single stage rocket
and fired a hammer-and-sickle medallion to the surface
of the moon back in the 1950's?

No.

Roger Coppock wrote:
Didn't the old Soviet Union set up some dumb publicity
stunt where they put a cannon in a single stage rocket
and fired a hammer-and-sickle medallion to the surface
of the moon back in the 1950's? Would that propaganda
stunt count as a single stage ROCKET, because the other
propulsion was a gun?


They never did that, but they did impact metal pennants on the Moon with
their Luna 2 spacecraft.
They also sent similar pennants to Mars and Venus.
http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bl...nt_Luna01b.jpg

Pat