Flight History
The engines were tested extensively on ground rigs, on both German and African test sites. Experiments were run with varying fuel and oxidizer formulations, as the general design was quite robust.
Small, 4-unit vehicles were built and tested in Shaba North, Zaire and Seba Oasis, Libya, where heights of 20 to 50 kilometers were reached. The rockets used there were 6 and 12 meters long. The basic CRPU concept was shown to be workable, though some rockets experienced guidance or component failures. The last launch of an OTRAG rocket took place on September 19, 1983 in Esrange. Following this launch, the OTRAG rocket was to be used in high altitude research.
Political pressure then shut down the project, as discussed in the OTRAG article.
After the company had left Libya in 1987, some remaining equipment was confiscated by the government. However, enough parts and knowledge were missing to prevent Libya from continuing the project.
Read more about this topic: OTRAG (rocket)
Famous quotes containing the words flight and/or history:
“AIDS was ... an illness in stages, a very long flight of steps that led assuredly to death, but whose every step represented a unique apprenticeship. It was a disease that gave death time to live and its victims time to die, time to discover time, and in the end to discover life.”
—Hervé Guibert (1955–1991)
“False history gets made all day, any day,
the truth of the new is never on the news
False history gets written every day
...
the lesbian archaeologist watches herself
sifting her own life out from the shards she’s piecing,
asking the clay all questions but her own.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)