[Illustration: 28. Preparing Cricket for launch.]
The reusable Cricket, often called the “meteorologist’s handyman,”
weighs only 2.5 kilograms (5½ pounds), 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds) of which
is propellant. Recovered by parachute after each flight, Cricket costs
less than $10 to refuel.
The Cricket’s .34-kilogram (three-fourth pound) instrument package zooms
to 975 meters (3200 feet) in only 12 seconds, gathering data on air
temperature, pressure and wind direction.
One of the rocket’s most noteworthy features is that it uses “cold”
propellants. Compressed carbon dioxide to which acetone is added is
pumped into a storage tank in the rocket at a pressure of 56.3 kilograms
per square centimeter (800 pounds per square inch). Release of the
pressurized mixture gives Cricket its thrust. Cricket is fired from its
launcher by a separate charge of carbon dioxide in order to preserve the
rocket’s fuel for flight.
This rocket was developed by Texaco Experiment, Inc., for the U.S. Air
Force’s Cambridge Research Laboratory.
The Cricket is from Texaco, Inc.
Length 1.2 m. (3 ft., 10 in.)
Diameter 11 cm. (4 in.)
Propellant Pressurized carbon dioxide and acetone
Thrust 23 kg. max. (50 lb.)
Velocity 168 m./sec. max. (550 ft./sec.)
Altitude 975 m. (3200 ft.)