The BlueSky 1 is a family of two-stage sounding rockets, initially designed by Soundnfury and further developed by NathanKell.

Table of Contents Design and Development Launches Mission 2A Flight 6 Flight 7

The basic BlueSky 1 has two liquid-fuelled stages, both utilising WAC Corporal engines burning Aniline/Furfuryl/Nitric Acid. The upper stage, massing 258kg (569lb), has a single motor, while the 465kg (1,025lb) lower stage has two.

The burn times are 49 seconds for the lower stage, and 47 seconds for the upper. The vehicle is hot-staged - i.e. the upper stage is ignited before stage separation - to ensure no ullage gas is ingested by the engine. A pair of solid-fuel separation motors are mounted near the top of the lower stage to guarantee a clean separation.

Three canted fins are mounted on the lower stage to stabilise the rocket. After staging, the upper stage relies on the spin induced by these fins, as it is no longer aerodynamically stable. Another source of spin is a slight (less than 5°) cant applied to the nozzles of the lower stage engines.

The first flown variant of the rocket was the BlueSky 1B, distinguished by the addition of a Tiny Tim solid-fuel booster as a 'zeroth stage'. This increased the pad mass of the vehicle to 1,063kg (2,343lb). The greater initial thrust improved the vehicle's stability, allowing for a steeper flight profile while ensuring that debris would not fall inland.

The demonstrated reliability of the WAC Corporal engines led to the decision to produce a 'stretched' variant, the BlueSky 1C, with higher propellant load and thus longer burn times (61s for the lower stage, 60s for the upper). This rocket had a pad mass of 1,184kg (2,610lb) and was to prove the final evolution in the BlueSky 1 line: though more exotic developments such as a triple-stick BlueSky 1H were proposed, the more powerful A4-derived rockets were by this time fulfilling all the rôles envisaged for the 1H, which was thus abandoned.

All BlueSky 1 launches were from Cape Canaveral, FL. A total of 2 vehicles were launched, both were successes.

A BlueSky 1B was launched to achieve a new record altitude of 434.6km (270mi). At upper stage burnout the rocket was ascending at over 2,500m/s (5,600mph). Apogee was reached 6 minutes and 21 seconds after launch. During re-entry most of the body of the rocket was destroyed, but the instrument package survived until Range Safety activated the FTS at T+12:48 to prevent large debris impacting the surface.

A BlueSky 1C was launched in the hope of attaining an even higher altitude. Burnout was at T+1:45 with an ascent rate of 2,595m/s (5,800mph), and the eventual apogee was 469,156m (291.5mi). The FTS was fired shortly after apogee.