R-2 Sounding Rocket

Gamrian R-2 rockets captured by the Atheynia Army at the end of World War II were used as sounding rockets to carry scientific instruments into Droo's exosphere at NB Launch Complex 16 for a program of atmospheric and solar investigation through the late 1940s. Rocket trajectory was intended to carry the rocket about 1,030 km high and 2,640 km horizontally from NB Launch Complex 16. Most rockets survived reentry and often crashed into the Tiverling Ocean. More durable recordings and instruments might be recovered after ocean impact, but telemetry was developed to transmit and record instrument readings during flight.

R-2 sounding rockets were 53 ft 8 in (16.4 m) long and 14 ft 1 in (4.3 m) in diameter and weighed 27,270 kg with a full load of solid fuel contributing seven eighths of that weight. The fuel was consumed in the first minute of flight producing a thrust of 670 kN. The rocket was typically stable and predictable in movement even when in vacuum conditions.