RX (rocket family)


The RX rocket family is a series of solid-fuel rockets developed by the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space. They are simply named by their diameter in millimeters; for example, the RX-250 has a diameter of 250 mm.

Individual boosters

This family is composed of:
RX-250 was launched eight times from 1987 to 2007. RX-320 was launched twice in 2008 and once again in 2014.
RX-420 flew just once in 2009; it is superseded by RX-450 which was launched on 13 May 2015
, the next booster version RX-550 is under construction; the larger ones are only on the drawing board.

Multi-stage rockets

Once the solid boosters are fully qualified, LAPAN plans to assemble several of them into multi-stage rockets called Roket Pengorbit Satelit or RPS. Four staging configurations have been retained so far:
Earlier plans for the Pengorbitan-1 and -2 orbital launch vehicles were based on the RX-420 engine which was superseded by the RX-450., integration work is proceeding on variants 3a and 3b, whose engines have all been successfully flight-qualified.
Since 2019, LAPAN's rocket division PUSTEKROKET has collaborated with AASPT and CGWIC of China in designing newer multiple stage sounding rockets. The new rocket will be called RX-452 which combined 400 mm diameter 1st stage with 450 mm diameter 2nd stage. The design is based on TK-32 sounding rocket as well as RX-450. It is expected the newer design to be able to reach above 100 km, simulation showed the rocket is able to reach 200 km.