Black Brant Sounding Rocket
Magellan Aerospace
Family of solid-propellant sounding rockets launching scientific payloads since 1962 — 70–850 kg payload, 150–1,500+ km altitude, >98% mission success rate, 1,000+ launches.
Technical specifications
- Payload Capacity
- 70–850 kg
- Altitude Range
- 150–1,500+ km
- Mission Success Rate
- >98%
- Total Launches
- >1,000
- Propellant
- Aluminized HTPB solid propellant
- Motor Case Material
- 4140 alloy steel
- Nozzle
- Graphite throat insert, steel housing
- Igniter
- Boron potassium nitrate (BPN) pyrotechnic
- Microgravity Time
- Up to 20 minutes
- Launch Rail
- Conventional boom rails or four fin towers
- Staging
- Single or multi-stage configurations
- In Service Since
- 1962
About
The Black Brant family of sounding rockets is one of the most popular and widely used research rockets ever built. Designed and manufactured by Magellan Aerospace (Bristol Aerospace) in Winnipeg, Canada, Black Brants have played a leading role in scientific space exploration since their introduction in 1962, with more than 1,000 successful launches and a mission success rate exceeding 98%.
Black Brants are available as single- or multi-stage vehicles, accommodating scientific payloads from 70 to 850 kg and reaching altitudes from 150 km to more than 1,500 km depending on configuration. Standard configurations include the Black Brant V through XII series, with the NIHKA upper stage motor enabling exoatmospheric operation on the Black Brant X and XII variants. The rocket uses an aluminized HTPB solid propellant for a neutral thrust-time profile, with a 4140 alloy steel motor case and graphite/steel nozzle assembly.
Black Brant missions provide up to 20 minutes of microgravity time per flight — valuable for microgravity science experiments, auroral studies, deep space ultraviolet and X-ray observations, and other extraterrestrial research programs. NASA is the primary customer, supported by Magellan’s full-service offering from mission feasibility and payload/hardware design through experiment integration, environmental testing, launch operations, and range crew support.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
