Black Brant

BB-1, Propulsion Test Vehicle

Mission Profile

Black Brant is a Canadian-built sounding rocket family developed by Bristol Aerospace (later Magellan Aerospace) that became the most widely used sounding rocket in the world, particularly by NASA for upper-atmosphere and microgravity research. The original Black Brant (BB-1) first flew in September 1959 standing 5.9 meters tall with a liftoff mass of only 800 kg, making it an extremely compact single-stage vehicle. Over subsequent decades the design evolved through numerous variants (Black Brant I through XII) with varying stages, sizes, and altitude capabilities, with some versions reaching altitudes above 1,000 km. Its combination of reliability, reasonable cost, and wide availability made the Black Brant the go-to platform for scientific payloads requiring brief access to space without the cost of an orbital launch.