Disappearing Rocket

A disappearing rocket is a rocket, usually a sounding rocket, which is designed so that parts of the rocket body which usually fall back to the ground first explode into small pieces, in order to avoid harm to persons and objects on the ground. Such a rocket can thus be launched outside restricted areas.

The experimental rocket GM-12 designed by KTS in Bonn-Beuel was an example of disappearing rocket. It had a length of 1.85 metres, a launch weight of 23 kg, a diameter of 0.116 metres and a burn time of 2.25 seconds. This rocket with a maximum flight altitude of 12 kilometres may have been the only disappearing rocket ever flown. The greatest problem at disappearing rockets is that metal parts, which are necessary for parts of the cone are difficult to break in small pieces. In the 1960s, efforts were also made in the United States to design a frangible version of the Arcas rocket .

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    At length, having come up fifty rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of loons to aid him, and immediately there came a wind from the east and rippled the surface, and filled the whole air with misty rain, and I was impressed as if it were the prayer of the loon answered, and his god was angry with me; and so I left him disappearing far away on the tumultuous surface.
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