VS-40

The VS-40 (Foguete Suborbital VS-40) is a Brazilian sounding rocket using solid fuel and stabilized aerodynamically.

The original version, VS-40, uses the S-40TM (4,200kg) first stage engine and the S-44M (810kg) second stage engine. This configuration corresponds to the upper stages of the VLS-1 rocket.

Version VS-40M used a S-40M engine for the first stage.

Flights

VS40 performed the following flights:

Date	Version	Flight	Site	Mission
1993/04/02	VS-40	V01	Alcântara	Operação Santa Maria - Qualifying flight for the S44 engine. 760 seconds in micro-gravity.
1998/03/21	VS-40	V02	Alcântara	Operação Livramento - VAP-1 (Fokker) payload.
2012/06/22	VS-40M	V03	Andøya	SHEFEX (Sharp Edge Flight Experiment) II payload.
2015/11/13	VS-40M		Alcântara	Operação São Lourenço - SARA Suborbital 1 (reentry experiment) – Failure (exploded on pad)

A flight of VS-40M carrying "SARA Suborbital 2" was planned but eventually cancelled. A future flight of VS-40M carrying HIFiRE 8 is in development.

Characteristics

Length (mm) 6725
Payload Mass (kg) 500
Diameter (mm) 1000
Total takeoff mass (kg) 6,737
Mass of propellant (kg) 5,054
Structural mass (kg) 1,028
Apogee (km) 650
Microgravity time (s) 760

S-40 rocket engine

The S-40 is a solid-propellant rocket motor developed and manufactured by Avibras Aeroespacial, a Brazilian aerospace company, primarily for use in sounding rockets. Different versions were used on several rockets:

S-40 - first stage of Sonda IV
S-40TM - first stage of VS-40; third stage of VLS-1
S-40M - first stage of VS-40M; second stage of VLM

S-40TM specifications

Source:

Total mass: 5664 kg
Unfueled mass: 1212kg
Thrust: 208.39 kN
SI: 275 seconds
Burn time: 56 s

S-44 rocket engine

The S-44 is a solid-propellant rocket motor developed by the Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço (IAE), part of Brazil’s Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial (DCTA). It was used as second stage of VS-40 and VS-40M; the third stage of VLM and the fourth stage of VLS-1.

S-44 specifications