What Space Payloads Can Sounding Rockets Carry?

Sounding rockets' payloads are typically scientific instruments for conducting space and earth sciences such as microgravity, upper atmospheric, space physics, astronomy and planetary science. Sounding rockets are particularly useful to carry payloads into important regions of space that are too low to be sampled by satellites.

Sounding rockets' payloads do not go into orbit, so expensive booster, extended telemetry or tracking coverage is not required. This means that mission's costs are significantly less than for orbiter missions. Launches of sounding rockets' payloads provide useful tools for education and training giving students the opportunity to be 'hands-on' from conception to design, to flight to analysis, and finally to publication of results.

View more information about suborbital rockets' payloads.