Two small sounding rockets were successfully launched from Esrange Space Center in Sweden on 11 and 13 March as part of the REXUS programme. The rockets carried eight payloads built by university students from Germany, Romania, Hungary, and Sweden.
The REXUS programme was created to allow students from universities and higher education colleges across Europe to conduct scientific and technological experiments on small sounding rockets powered by Improved Orion solid-fuel motors. REXUS launches are managed jointly by the Swedish Space Corporation and MORABA, a department of the German aerospace agency DLR’s Space Operations and Astronaut Training Institute.
REXUS 33 was launched from the Esrange Space Center at 10:15 CET on 11 March. The 5.83-metre-tall rocket carried three experiments built by students from the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Berlin in Germany, and the University Politehnica of Bucharest in Romania. According to the DLR MORABA Instagram account, the payload was successfully recovered approximately two hours after liftoff after reaching a maximum altitude of approximately 86 kilometres.
Two days later, on 13 March, REXUS 34 was launched at 06:23 CET. The 5.91-metre-tall rocket carried four experiments built by students from the Dresden University of Technology and Augsburg University in Germany, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary, and Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. While the mission aimed for a nominal altitude of 79 kilometres, the rocket fell short of this target. An SSC spokesperson has told European Spaceflight that teams are “currently investigating why.” Despite the off-nominal performance, the payloads were successfully recovered.
The eight payloads launched aboard the two rockets focused on a wide variety of study areas, including materials science, fluid dynamics, propulsion technology, and radiation exposure. One of the experiments, FENRIR, focused on developing a modular platform that future REXUS participants could use for free-falling experiments ejected from the rocket.
Update: On 20 March 2024, the maximum altitude of REXUS 33 and the off-nominal outcome of REXUS 34 were added.
