Post burnout thrust and outgassing characteristics of solid propellant rocket motors

Research has been conducted into the problems of avoiding collision between separated payloads and spent rocket motors due to post burnout thrust and the problem of contamination of scientific instrumentation due to outgassing of the smoldering propellant. High velocity separation systems and vehicle tumble systems have been developed and flown successfully to obtain large spacial separation between payloads and rocket motors in the exoatmosphere. These results are presented along with the description of a payload to be flown in 1979 that will attempt to quantify the post burnout thrust and outgassing of a Black Brant VC vehicle.