On February 27, the MAPHEUS-14 sounding rocket of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) was successfully launched from the Swedish rocket base Esrange near Kiruna. It reached an altitude of 265 kilometers and placed its scientific cargo in weightlessness for six and a half minutes. A total of 14 experiments were on board the rocket, which were safely recovered after landing. The results will be used for future space missions and for the development of technology and materials.
MAPHEUS-14 is equipped with the new Red Kite rocket motor from DLR and Bayern-Chemie, the competence center for propulsion systems within MBDA Germany. The second rocket stage was an Improved Malemute, a military engine that was repurposed for civilian research use and also produced by Bayern-Chemie. This meant that the propulsion system for the sounding rocket was completely in German hands for the first time. The MAPHEUS research flight series is operated by the DLR Institute of Materials Physics in Space, the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine and DLR’s Moraba Mobile Rocket Base at the Esrange rocket launch site in Sweden. Thomas Voigtmann, scientific project manager of the mission from the DLR Institute of Materials Physics in Space, said: “Thanks to the new powerful engine, MAPHEUS-14 was our most extensive and scientifically powerful campaign to date. We hope that this will usher in a new era for the project and our collaboration with numerous external stakeholders. This already includes the successful collaboration with Bayern-Chemie.” https://militaeraktuell.at/enforce-tac-ceotronics-zeigt-produktneuheiten/ Red Kite – the largest solid rocket motor ever built in Germany
The new Red Kite solid rocketmotor is designed as a first and second stage for multi-stage sounding rockets. Red Kite is powerful and allows payloads for rocket launches of more than 400 kilograms. MAPHEUS-14 housed seven experiment facilities as well as a shared module, which accommodated another seven small experiments. At the end of 2019, DLR commissioned Bayern-Chemie to develop and manufacture a new type of solid rocket motor. The Red Kite engine in the single-ton class is the largest solid rocket motor ever built in Germany. Its development took around four years and was completed in September 2023. Shortly afterwards, the maiden flight in November 2023 marked the successful flight qualification as part of the SOAR mission (Single Stage Operational Assessment of Red Kite) from the Norwegian island of Andøya.
