I came across this picture from a 1958 Popular Mechanics. Listed among the rocket configurations was the Farside Rocket. It seem to have a strange box around it and I was totally unfamiliar of its purpose. A little research and I found the following…
In 1957 an attempt to send a rocket to an altitude of 4000 miles. The rocket was the Farside rocket and was launched from an high altitude balloon. Farside is sometimes referred to as a Rockoon (Rocket-Balloon) vehicle.All of the Farside rockets were 4 stage rockets using existing solid fuel technology. There were 6 launch attempts all failed except the 5th and 6th launches which approached the 4000 mile goal.
Video of a Farside launch
Further reading on the Farside Program
Click here for more Rockoon articles on the Rocketry Blog
June 17, 2008 at 11:05 am
[...] impossible. Could an amateur launch a nano-satellite in orbit? Yes it could be done. Maybe using a Rockoon type craft. Could they keep it in orbit at least 9 orbits and prove it? Not on $2000. It would take [...]
June 18, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Very interesting article and video. I remember a rocket group recently conducted a project similar to this one.
March 22, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Watch us do it!
September 21, 2009 at 8:17 am
[...] looking entries into the Google X-Prize. The Haas (named after Conrad Haas) is oddly non-aerodynamic Rockoon that has the mission of placing a probe on the moon. ARCA hashad some success with a sub-orbital [...]