Strypi
Encyclopedia
Strypi is the name of a US sounding rocket
. The Strypi has two stages. The first stage consists of two Recruit, the second of one Castor-rocket. The Strypi has a maximum flight height of 200 kilometres and a diameter of 79 centimetres.
The rocket was originally designed and built in 1962 by teams from the Sandia National Laboratories
in an around-the-clock program that was a part of a larger nuclear weapons testing program, undertaken prior to the imposition of the Limited Test Ban Treaty
(LTBT) in October, 1963. It was designed to take a nuclear warhead into space for extra-atmospheric testing. Though it never performed this function, Strypi did become the "workhorse" of Sandia's rocket research program. The rocket's name came from the efforts of the Sandia teams, which had "taken the tiger by the tail".
In 1968, a modified Strypi was used in Material Test Vehicle (MTV) booster tests. Although atmospheric nuclear testing was now banned, as a part of the Test Readiness Program
the U.S. Air Force continued to develop the means of testing, should the ban be lifted.
Sounding rocket
A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...
. The Strypi has two stages. The first stage consists of two Recruit, the second of one Castor-rocket. The Strypi has a maximum flight height of 200 kilometres and a diameter of 79 centimetres.
The rocket was originally designed and built in 1962 by teams from the Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories
The Sandia National Laboratories, managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation , are two major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratories....
in an around-the-clock program that was a part of a larger nuclear weapons testing program, undertaken prior to the imposition of the Limited Test Ban Treaty
Partial Test Ban Treaty
The treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty , Limited Test Ban Treaty , or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons...
(LTBT) in October, 1963. It was designed to take a nuclear warhead into space for extra-atmospheric testing. Though it never performed this function, Strypi did become the "workhorse" of Sandia's rocket research program. The rocket's name came from the efforts of the Sandia teams, which had "taken the tiger by the tail".
In 1968, a modified Strypi was used in Material Test Vehicle (MTV) booster tests. Although atmospheric nuclear testing was now banned, as a part of the Test Readiness Program
Test Readiness Program
The Test Readiness Program was a United States Government program established in 1963 to maintain the necessary technologies and infrastructure for the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, should the treaty which prohibited such testing be abrogated....
the U.S. Air Force continued to develop the means of testing, should the ban be lifted.