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# Is 678 km the new altitude record for a rocket shot "straight up" (vertical launch)?

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The Space Daily April 10th Rocket Science item Europe's largest sounding rocket launched from Esrange says:

MAXUS 9, Europe's largest sounding rocket for experiments in microgravity, successfully lifted off from SSC's (Swedish Space Corporation's) launch facility Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.

The rocket was launched at 11:30 local time and carried nine scientific experiments and a technology demonstrator, all together 579 kg, to an altitude of 678 km which enabled slightly more than 12 minutes and of stable microgravity, $$10^{-5}$$ g

A quick estimate shows that a ballistic trajectory rising to that height and then returning would indeed have a time of about 12 and a half minutes, so I am guessing there was just enough delta-v (about 3600 m/s) to attain vertical velocity quickly, and then the next twelve minutes were free-fall, and there would be no attempt to achieve substantial horizontal velocity to prolong the duration of the zero gee status.

Is that roughly correct?

Is this a new time and/or altitude record for this kind of trajectory?

The Space Daily April 10th Rocket Science item Europe's largest sounding rocket launched from Esrange says:

The rocket was launched at 11:30 local time and carried nine scientific experiments and a technology demonstrator, all together 579 kg, to an altitude of 678 km which enabled slightly more than 12 minutes and of stable microgravity, $$10^{-5}$$ g

A quick estimate shows that a ballistic trajectory rising to that height and then returning would indeed have a time of about 12 and a half minutes, so I am guessing there was just enough delta-v (about 3600 m/s) to attain vertical velocity quickly, and then the next twelve minutes were free-fall, and there would be no attempt to achieve substantial horizontal velocity to prolong the duration of the zero gee status.

Is that roughly correct?

Is this a new time and/or altitude record for this kind of trajectory?

The Space Daily April 10th Rocket Science item Europe's largest sounding rocket launched from Esrange says:

MAXUS 9, Europe's largest sounding rocket for experiments in microgravity, successfully lifted off from SSC's (Swedish Space Corporation's) launch facility Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.

The rocket was launched at 11:30 local time and carried nine scientific experiments and a technology demonstrator, all together 579 kg, to an altitude of 678 km which enabled slightly more than 12 minutes and of stable microgravity, $$10^{-5}$$ g

A quick estimate shows that a ballistic trajectory rising to that height and then returning would indeed have a time of about 12 and a half minutes, so I am guessing there was just enough delta-v (about 3600 m/s) to attain vertical velocity quickly, and then the next twelve minutes were free-fall, and there would be no attempt to achieve substantial horizontal velocity to prolong the duration of the zero gee status.

Is that roughly correct?

Is this a new time and/or altitude record for this kind of trajectory?

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# Is 678 km the new altitude record for a rocket shot "straight up"?

The Space Daily April 10th Rocket Science item Europe's largest sounding rocket launched from Esrange says:

The rocket was launched at 11:30 local time and carried nine scientific experiments and a technology demonstrator, all together 579 kg, to an altitude of 678 km which enabled slightly more than 12 minutes and of stable microgravity, $$10^{-5}$$ g

A quick estimate shows that a ballistic trajectory rising to that height and then returning would indeed have a time of about 12 and a half minutes, so I am guessing there was just enough delta-v (about 3600 m/s) to attain vertical velocity quickly, and then the next twelve minutes were free-fall, and there would be no attempt to achieve substantial horizontal velocity to prolong the duration of the zero gee status.

Is that roughly correct?

Is this a new time and/or altitude record for this kind of trajectory?