Sonda (rocket)

Sonda rockets family portrait
Side-by-side comparison of Sonda rockets, to scale
Sonda II, III and IV on display at Parque Santos Dumont

Sonda ("Probe" in English) is a family of Brazilian-built sounding rockets which serves as an R&D path to the VLS (Portuguese: Veículo Lançador de Satélites) orbital rocket. Launches started in 1965 and continue to this day. Launch sites include Wallops Island, Andoya, Kiruna, Natal, Alcântara, Cassino and SvalRak.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Wade (August 24, 2015). "Sonda". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2015-08-24.
  2. ^ Lucca, Eduardo Viegas Dalle (February 2014). The Brazilian Sounding Rocket VSB-30: meeting the Brazilian Space Program and COPUOS objectives (PDF). DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
  3. ^ Corliss, William R. (1971). "Sounding Rocket Resurgence, 1965-1968". NASA SOUNDING ROCKETS, 1958-1968 A Historical Summary (NASA SP-4401). NASA. pp. 61–74. LCCN 70-169175.