Rohini

Rohini is a series of sounding rockets developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for meteorological and atmospheric study. These sounding rockets are capable of carrying payloads of between altitudes of . The ISRO currently uses RH-200, RH-300, RH-300 Mk-II, RH-560 Mk-II and RH-560 Mk-III rockets, which are launched from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in Thumba and the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. Various programs such as Equatorial ElectroJet (EEJ), Leonid Meteor Shower (LMS), Indian Middle Atmosphere Programme (IMAP), Monsoon Experiment (MONEX), Middle Atmosphere Dynamics (MIDAS), and Sooryagrahan-2010 have been conducted using the Rohini sounding rocket series. It has been the forerunners for ISRO's heavier and more complex launch vehicles, with continued usage even today for atmospheric and meteorological experiment and research Brief History On November 21, 1963, the American Nike-Apache was the first sounding rocket to launch from Thumba. Following that, two-stage rockets from France (Centaure) and Russia (M-100) were launched. In 1967, the Rohini RH-75, an ISRO variant, was launched. The Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme was established in 1975 to encompass all sounding rocket operations. Nomenclature The rockets in the series are designated with the letters RH (for "Rohini"), followed by a number corresponding to the diameter (in millimetres) of the rocket. Series RH-75 The RH-75, the first sounding rocket developed by India, It weighed , had a diameter of and flew 15 times between November 1967 and September 1968.