Hopi-Dart


Hopi-Dart was an American sounding rocket used by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for aeronomy studies in the early 1960s.

Design

Hopi-Dart was a two-stage vehicle, combining a solid-fuelled Hopi III first stage with an unpowered "dart" second stage. It was originally capable of carrying a payload of to an apogee of ; an upgrade, sometimes known as "Hopi Plus", increased the apogee to.

Operational history

Eleven test and eleven operational aeronomy missions were flown, with Wallops Island, the Tonopah Test Range, and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 43 being used as launch sites. Four of the test launches were failures.