sounding rocket

noun

: a rocket used especially to obtain information concerning atmospheric conditions at various altitudes

Examples of sounding rocket in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web So, aboard a sounding rocket, the team launched a miniaturized chip filled with rubidium-87 atoms. Chelsea Gohd, Discover Magazine, 18 Oct. 2018 The test started with the launch of a Black Brant IX sounding rocket; less than two minutes after launch, the payload carrying the parachute separated from the rocket and began to fall back to Earth. Alison Klesman, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2019 Engineers working with the MAIUS-1 experiment put payloads into the sounding rocket. Chelsea Gohd, Discover Magazine, 18 Oct. 2018 In January 1995, Norwegian and US scientists launched a Black Brant-sounding rocket from Andøya. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 28 Oct. 2022 PLD Space has advertised the Miura 1 as a sounding rocket that can carry 100 kilograms to an altitude of 150 kilometers, generating up to four minutes of microgravity time. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 23 Sep. 2022 The suborbital launch on a Black Brant sounding rocket reached an apogee of 243 km. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 8 July 2022 The sounding rocket campaign’s aim is to determine whether the high-radiation environment around nearby sunlike stars would strip any potentially earthlike planets of their atmospheres on timescales of only a few million years. Bruce Dorminey, Forbes, 14 May 2022 In its own post, NASA wrote that the next rocket launch from Wallops is a NASA sounding rocket mission targeted for January 2022. Julia Musto, Fox News, 23 Oct. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sounding rocket.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1945, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sounding rocket was circa 1945

Dictionary Entries Near sounding rocket

Cite this Entry

“Sounding rocket.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sounding%20rocket. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

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