DORADO Sounding Rocket
Responsive, 100% explosives-free hybrid-propulsion suborbital sounding rocket delivering 20 kg to 100 km apogee.
Technical specifications
- Propulsion
- Hybrid HTP oxidizer / HRF-1 fuel
- Payload capacity
- 20 kg
- Apogee
- 100 km
- Microgravity access
- ~3 minutes
- Payload volume
- 41 L
- Payload bay length
- 0.74 m
- Payload bay diameter
- 0.27 m
- Explosive equivalence
- Zero-TNT, 100% explosives-free, ships fully inert
- TRL
- 5-6 (technology demonstrated)
About
DORADO is Equatorial Space Systems’ responsive suborbital launcher, designed to deliver small payloads on a suborbital trajectory for microgravity and atmospheric research. Like the company’s orbital VOLANS vehicle, DORADO uses a 100% explosives-free hybrid HTP/HRF-1 propulsion system and ships fully inert, making it safe to manufacture, transport, and deploy to any launch range in the world without special explosive-handling permits.
ESS describes DORADO as the ‘greenest sounding rocket in the world,’ eliminating toxic propellant effluents and producing markedly less carbon output and greenhouse gas emissions than conventional solid- or liquid-fueled sounding rockets, while being the most operationally flexible suborbital launcher of its class.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
