Guess the rocket is name of the game. Post a picture or a videoclip of a rocket. The others will guess what the rocket is. The first one to come up with the right answer will post the next challenge.

I'll start out with a video and a picture:

http://paranoid.dechengst.nl/forumimages/raket2.avi

Too easy!

'Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!'

We's talkin' Orion, chaps!

Never seen the movie before, though - what a bunch of Dr Strangeloves!

I'll post my question shortly...

Bob Shaw

Here we are - not too difficult!

Bob Shaw

Ah haaa - Upper stage of a Delta 2 by XSS-10
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/46/1
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-ss03/sp-xss.html

doh! too late - and it's my sig rocket too!

Name the LV

An Europa rocket being launched at either Woomera or Kourou.



There's a quite interesting BBC documentary about Project Orion:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries...rs-a-bomb.shtml

Next:

Doug:

Leaving the filename 'as is' is perhaps making things just a tad too easy!

Could I suggest that future players all rename the image file to something that won't be of any assistance!

Bob Shaw

Would that be a Minuteman 3?

It has a sort of silo-ish, solid fuel look to it - perhaps an above-ground test? MX, Peacekeeper?

Bob Shaw

Lyford appears to be right. Next, please.

This should be easy - a fave since I was a kid, made in plastic toy kits and featured in too many 50's B movies to count -

Stock footage of the World, Unite!

Nope.



Nope. It's a ballistic missile, but it's not an American one.

Re: lyford. Nike-Ajax. Though I had jumped the gun with DEChengst's challenge.

There is a well preserved Nike site about 50 miles north of me.

To keep with being in unmanned spaceflight, future submissions should be rocket / LV related to same.

sorry, DEChengst, launched early so to speak. I'll sit the next few rounds in the penalty box. ;-)

Force de Frappe? I see no Red Stars...

Bob Shaw

They ran out of red paint.

DEChengst,

it's a TOPOL-M.

So, this is the next one.
Sorry but I didn't found a better quality shot of this launcher.

-- Rakhir

Click to view attachment

Do launch vehicles or space related and not current weapon systems

I confirm my choice is for commercial satellites.

Yes it's a Topol-M

The rocket Rakhir posted sure looks like an ICBM so I guess it would be something like a Volna or Rokot.

Yes, it's a converted ICBM and you are right with the country of origin but it's not a Volna or a Rokot.
Here is another indication : the first demonstration launch took place less than 5 years ago.

No other suggestion ?

OK, let's add some new indications.
The first and unique flight was performed from Baikonour but the main launch site of this rocket is supposed to be Svobodny.
At the time of the first launch, the company was expecting to start the commercial launches in 2006.

Strela (or Arrow in English)?

Correct !

Official web site : http://www.npomash.ru/rockets/en/krk.htm
DEChengst, you were very close with the Rockot.

Next please...

This will probably be a piece of cake after your great enigma...

Something easier for a change:

Click to view attachment

Is that an Athena 2?

Ahh, you're no fun at all
Yes, it's an Athena 2, all solid (if you don't count the 4th stage) rocket, notable for launching Lunar Prospector in 1998.
Three flights, one failure -- payload fairing failed to jettison.

Doug? Your turn....

Yeah. How about: "If no new challenge is posted 48 hours after confirmation of correct answer, anyone can post a new challenge" ?

OK then, just because I think it's pretty:

A Starchaser Nova.

I didn't say it was hard

This one shouldn't be too hard either:

J-1?

something Japanese anyway. They have such a pretty launch complex

That's a Japenese H-2A.

The H rockets started out as licensed copies of the Boeing Delta. I think they are officially all Japanese now, but it sure looks just like a Delta-2 to me. :-)

Correct. Your turn to post a challenge

How about this - don't read the URL, just click on it!

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2006/Stude...on-June-8.m.jpg

OK, name this launch vehicle:


Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

I guess it's a Tsiklon-2

-- Rakhir

I'm glad I'm not downwind of it... ...is that UDMH being vented? Nice stuff!

Bob Shaw

You got it right, Rakhir. The Tsiklon-2 (Cyclone-2).

Bob, yes it is powered by UDMH (Nye-Simmetrichny Dimetil Gidrazin) and nitrogen tetroxide. The orange color is actually nitrogen dioxide, formed from the N2O4 (which is colorless). UDMH is a powerful reducing agent and ignites spontaneously when mixed with an oxydizing agent. Glushko and Yangel promoted this fuel mixture for ICBMs with rapid fueling and long readiness holding.

Chemical starting is very smooth, compared to electric ignition of other fuels, which sometimes blows the engine apart. A "hard start" as they say. The Russians still like to start a rocket with UDMH/N2O4, even when LOX/Kerosine is the main fuel.

Rakhir, your turn!

This one should be easier than my previous one.

Click to view attachment

Black Arrow

Bob Shaw

Yes it's a Black Arrow, developped by the Royal Aircraft Establishment.

Four flights :
- 2 failures
- 2 success (only the last one was orbital). The UK became the sixth nation to place a satellite into orbit (after the USSR, USA, France, Japan and China).

The last flight took place in 71, two weeks before my birth

Interesting. And the 7th and 8th space powers were India and Israel. The Ukraine is a space power, inheriting a chunk of the Soviet program. Is that it, are there only 9 nations that can launch a rocket into orbit?

Don:

Them, and the Tripoli Rocket guys, if anyone lets them...

...oh, and ESA, Arianespace, SeaLaunch...

...and a bunch of other guys. Nations, though, are old hat...

Bob Shaw

Good points. Multi-national corporations like SeaLaunch certainly blur the line. I'd count "ESA" and "Arianespace" (and SEP) as the same thing -- an outgrowth of the French space program, but lots of nations contributing now.

Who are the "bunch of other guys" who can put things into orbit?

Don:

Apart from Mr Musk, there are a number of rocketry wannabees out there - granted, most are strictly suborbital so far. But give them time...

Bob Shaw

True, but suborbital is trivial, even the V-2 went into space in that sense. Going into orbit means you need a rocket that can execute a pitch-control program, which is generally very precisely designed to get you out of the atmosphere and still impart the necessary horizontal velocity. Doesn't have to be a flight computer, Sputnik's pitch control was defined by a shaped cog. But it still is not a trivial task.

Hey, give us a rocket to guess at! :-)