SSC Space launched its SubOrbital Express-5 mission on 31 May from the Esrange Space Centre in northern Sweden. The rocket carried 12 individual experiments, one of which examined the effects of microgravity on red hair samples from a Swedish influencer.
The 13-metre-tall sounding rocket used for the mission was powered by Red Kite rocket motors on both its first and second stages. The Red Kite rocket motor was developed by the German rocket propulsion company Bayern-Chemie under a DLR contract and was first launched in November 2023. While the motor has now been used on six missions, SubOrbital Express-5 was only the second to use Red Kite for both stages, with previous flights having used Improved Malemute and Black Brant upper stages.
Launched at 06:33 UTC from the Esrange Space Centre’s Skylark Tower, the rocket reached an altitude of approximately 260 kilometres, providing six and a half minutes of microgravity.
The majority of the four-metre scientific payload element stacked atop the two Red Kite rocket motors was accounted for by three ESA-funded experiments. These experiments investigated the solidification of metal alloys in microgravity, the behaviour of red blood cells in altered gravity conditions, and how the cells lining blood vessels respond to changes in gravity. A fourth rideshare module carried nine additional experiments from research institutions and commercial customers, examining the effects of microgravity on human immune cells, stem cells, radiation shielding materials, microorganism behaviour, and the solidification of metal alloys.
By far the most unusual of the 12 was SpaceGinger-01, which examined the effects of microgravity on a sample of red hair from Swedish influencer Mauri “Mustiga Mauri” Hermundsson.
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