Black Knight - BK04

BK04, the first re-entry experiment with a separating spin-stabilised head, was very successful. The main stage reached its designed burn-out velocity and both guidance and control of the vehicle were satisfactory. Telemetry on the main stage worked through flight over apogee to re-entry and valuable information on systems performance was obtained. The head separation, turnover and spin-stabilisation system was successful. The head re-entered (200,000 feet) at 11,740 ft/sec, telemetry worked throughout to impact, except for a short period during re-entry, and some information on re-entry dynamics and heating was obtained. Recovery of the head with the patches of materials under test attached to it yielded valuable information on ablation during re-entry.

Number Stages Date local
time Empty
wt [lbs] HTP
[lbs] Kerosene
[lbs} All up
wt [lbs] Burn-out
time [s] Apogee
miles

04 1 11 6 59 22.33 1 474 10 392 1 328 13 194 145.75 499