ASRI Launches South Africa’s First Suborbital Rocket Facility at Denel Overberg Test Range

ASRI engineers have commissioned a new suborbital sounding rocket launch facility at the Denel Overberg Test Range (OTR) in the Western Cape.

The facility was funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and is a first for South Africa in terms of its capabilities. It also represents the first significant piece of space launch infrastructure built since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy.

Suborbital rockets are unguided and must be launched off a gantry that can be accurately aimed, depending on the required flight trajectory, mission requirements and safety risks.

The new gantry has a state-of-the-art aiming and control system to allow the boom to rotate through 360 degrees in the horizontal plane, and 90 degrees up to the vertical position. This permits pin-point aiming accuracy in any direction and fast adjustment to account for factors like changes in wind direction on launch days.

During the commissioning exercise, UKZN engineers put the gantry through its paces alongside a team from TF Design Group of Companies, which built the platform to ASRI’s specification.

A successful cold-flow propellant test was also run using a Phoenix hybrid rocket to assess performance of ASRI’s launch control software and to ensure that communication between the control room and the rocket was possible.

The gantry will be used to launch suborbital rockets built by ASRI, such as Phoenix, but can also accommodate much larger solid-propellant vehicles of the type operated by NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Sounding Rocket Program and the European Space Agency – ESA.

Suborbital rockets are used to flight-test aerospace technologies as well as to conduct scientific research in the high atmosphere above 80 km in a region that is too high for balloons and often too low for satellites. Some even travel hundreds of kilometres into space to measure parameters such as the Earth’s magnetic field, sun strength and atmospheric radiation levels. They can also be used to test out new materials, communication equipment and propulsion systems.

Sounding rockets are a critical step in developing an orbital satellite launch capability.

With the commissioning of the new equipment, UKZN becomes the first and only university in South Africa to operate a permanent suborbital rocket launch facility.

This will further strengthen ASRI’s capacity for cutting edge aerospace research and provide a unique training environment for the world-class engineers we produce.