Super Strypi is a small three stage solid fueled rocket designed to cost effectively orbit small satellites. It was developed by Sandia National Laboratory. The rocket is rail-launch and spin stabilized, like a sounding rocket, with fixed fins. It uses a cold gas attitude control system during second and third stage flight.
Super Strypi can boost 275 kg to a 400 km sun synchronous orbit from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, Hawaii and 320-kg to a lower inclination 400-km orbit from US East Coast launch sites.
Aerojet Rocketdyne developed the three rocket motors under its internal research and development LEONIDAS (Low Earth Orbiting Nanosatellite Integrated Defense Autonomous System) program. The company then built a set of flight demonstration motors under contract from the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory and Operationally Responsive Space office. The solid rocket motors are identified, for Stages 1, 2 and 3 respectively, as LEO-46, LEO-7, and LEO-1.
Aerojet Rocketydyne test fired the LEO-7 motor at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards Air Force Base in California on August 23, 2012. LEO-7 is loaded with approximately 7,000 lbs of solid rocket propellant and uses design features from previous company motors, including Orbus 7S which was developed as a perigee kick motor for Hughes 393 satellites.
LEO-46 Test
On August 13, 2014, Aerojet Rocketdyne test fired the LEO-46 motor at AFRL. The 52 inch diameter, 40 foot long motor generated nearly 300,000-lbf of thrust during its 73-second test.
LEO-1 was test fired during the Fall of 2013. The motor is based on the Orbus 1 motor, which had a gross mass of less than 500 kg.
Super Strypi will launch the ORS-4 mission, currently planned for mid 2016. The mission is sponsored by the Operationally Responsive Space Office, in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Hawaii/Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory, the Pacific Missile Range Facility and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Super Strypi will be the largest rocket ever launched from a rail system.
Aerojet Rocketdyne plans to use the LEO motors to support “small launch vehicles, target vehicles and national defense architectures”.
Super Strypi has also been known as SPARK (Space-borne Payload Assist Rocket – Kauai). It will fly from a rail launcher at Kokole Point (LP-41) at Barking Sands, Kauai.
Also read: Junos III, IV, and V and Mercury Jupiter
Vehicle Configurations
| LEO Payload (metric tons) from Barking Sands 400 km x 98 deg | LEO Payload (metric tons) from Cape Canaveral 400 km x 28.5 deg | Configuration | LIftoff Height (meters) | Liftoff Mass (metric tons) | |
| Super Strypi | 0.275 t | 0.300 t | LEO-46 + LEO-7 + LEO-1 | ~18 m | ~24 t (est) |
Vehicle Components
| LEO-46 Stage 1 | LEO-7 Stage 2 | LEO-1 Stage 3 | Payload Fairing | |
| Diameter (m) | 1.32 m | 1.32 m | 0.69 m | 1.32 m |
| Length (m) | 12.2 m | 2.27 m | 1.26 m | m |
| Propellant Mass (tonnes) | ~16.9 t (est) | ~3.35 t (est) | ~0.423 t (est) | |
| Total Mass (tonnes) | ~19.2 t (est) | ~3.55 t (est) | ~0.476 t (est) | |
| Engine | LEO-46 | LEO-7 | LEO-1 | |
| Engine Mfgr | Aerojet | Aerojet | Aerojet | |
| Fuel | Solid | Solid | Solid | |
| Oxidizer | Solid | Solid | Solid | |
| Thrust (SL tonnes) | ~130 t | – | – | |
| Thrust (Vac tonnes) | ~76 t (avg) | ~16 t (est) | ~9 t (est) | |
| ISP (SL sec) | (273 s) (est) | – | – | |
| ISP (Vac sec) | (278 s) (est) | ~282 s (est) | ~293 s (est) | |
| Burn Time (sec) | 73 s | ~60 s | ~40 s | |
| No. Engines/Motors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Super Strypi Flight Record
DATE VEHICLE ID PAYLOAD MASS(t) SITE ORBIT ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --/--/-- Super Strypi ORS-4 0.2 BS 41 LEO/S ----------------------------------------------------------------------- =======================================================================
