Petrel (rocket)

{{Short description|British sounding rocket}}

File:Petrel rocket.png

The Petrel was a British sounding rocket.{{cite book|author1=Great Britain. Central Office of Information. Reference Division|author2=British Information Services|title=British industry today; aerospace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-govAQAAIAAJ|year=1972|publisher=H.M. Stationery Off.|isbn=9780117006027 }}{{Cite web |last=Serra |first=Jean-Jacques |date=2005-02-07 |title=Skua and Petrel rockets |url=http://www.univ-perp.fr/fuseurop/skupe_e.htm |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=European Rockets|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207182449/http://www.univ-perp.fr/fuseurop/skupe_e.htm |archive-date=2005-02-07 }}{{Cite web |title=Petrel |url=http://www.astronautix.com/p/petrel.html |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=www.astronautix.com}} The Petrel 1 was launched, like the Skua 1, with 3 Chick booster rockets. The Chick motors were fitted into a booster carriage that also carried the two parachutes that brought it back to earth for re-use. The Petrel 1 was 3.34 m long, had a diameter of 19 cm and reached a maximum altitude of 140 kilometres.{{Cite web |title=Petrel 1 |url=http://www.astronautix.com/p/petrel1.html |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=www.astronautix.com}} It was fired from a {{convert|10|m|ft|adj=mid|-long}} launch tube.

The Petrel was first flown on 8 June 1967 in South Uist. Since 1968, some 234 Petrels were launched from sites in South Uist, Andøya, Kiruna, Thumba, Sonmiani and Greenland. Around 2/3 of the launches took place from South Uist.{{Cite book |last= Massie |first=Harrie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bqQsjc3BwZkC&pg=PA190 |title=History of British Space Science |last2=Robins |first2=M. O. |date=27 February 1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-30783-3 |pages=185-190}}

In 1977, an improved version, the Petrel 2, with a maximum altitude of 175 kilometres was used for the first time.{{Cite web |title=Petrel 2 |url=http://www.astronautix.com/p/petrel2.html |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=www.astronautix.com}} The Petrel was also fired from ESRANGE at Kiruna in Sweden in 1971, and from the range on Andøya, an island off the Norwegian coast in 1973. One launcher was installed at Kiruna, while two were installed on Andøya. Both could be loaded, but only one was elevated at a time. Two launchers allowed successive firings, one as an event came up and another as it decayed. The Petrel Iaunch programme ceased in August 1982.{{cite book|author1=S. Böhme|author2=W. Fricke|author3=H. Hefele|author4=I. Heinrich, W. Hofmann, D. Krahn, V. R. Matas, L. D. Schmadel, G. Zech|title=Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts: Literature 1983|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJHuCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA100|date=14 December 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-662-12340-9|pages=100–}}{{Cite conference |last=Delury |first=J. T. |date=June 1983 |title=Summary of the 1957-1982 UK scientific research sounding-rocket programme |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1983ESASP.183...21D |conference=Sixth ESA Symposium on European rocket and balloon programmes and related research |pages=21 |bibcode=1983ESASP.183...21D |id=ESA SP-183}}

To facilitate one experiment, a Petrel payload released gas clouds at apogee. The wife of one of the firing team members reported that strange lights were being seen in the night sky from Scotland.