The U.S. Air Force has released the first-ever photos of the Super Strypi launch vehicle, a souped-up version of a Cold War-era sounding rocket about to be shot into orbit on a unique demonstration flight with 13 small satellites.
The military previously only showed photos of a ground mockup of the Super Strypi.
Sporting aerodynamic fins and standing 67 feet tall, the Super Strypi will fire off a rail launcher at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, as soon as Tuesday. The flight is experimental, but 13 satellites are fastened inside the nose cone for the University of Hawaii, NASA, and university and commercial CubeSat developers.
The Super Strypi launch vehicle is fastened to a rail launch system at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Credit: U.S. Air ForceThe Super Strypi launch vehicle is fastened to a rail launch system at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Credit: U.S. Air ForceThe Super Strypi launch vehicle is fastened to a rail launch system at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Credit: U.S. Air ForceThe rail launch system used by the Super Strypi vehicle is modified from the rail launcher from the Scout rocket program retired in the 1990s. It stands more than 100 feet tall. Credit: University of HawaiiThe U.S. Air Force published this diagram of the Super Strypi launch vehicle in an environmental assessment for the ORS-4 launch. Credit: U.S. Air Force
An Orbital ATK Cygnus supply ship packed with 3.7 tons of cargo, supplies and experiments rode an Antares rocket into orbit from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Sunday, setting course on a two-day pursuit of the International Space Station.
The final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery seen from the ET-Cam mounted near the top of its fuel tank. Mission STS-133 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on February 24, 2011. (Membership required)
Fresh off a series of three complex spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, the International Space Station’s crew is set to receive two robotic resupply freighters in the next week after launches from Florida’s Space Coast and the steppes of Kazakhstan.
