Maxus (rocket)
The MAXUS program is a joint venture between Astrium and the Swedish Space Corporation to material tests under conditions of microgravity. To this end, a corresponding payload starts with a Castor 4B- altitude research rocket from Esrange launch site in Sweden. All MAXUS -offs were carried out with the support of the Mobile Rocket Base of the German Centre for Aerospace.
With Maxus studies in up to twelve minutes and 40 seconds of permanent microgravity can be performed while the capsule is in free fall.
The 1.02 meter diameter and 15.50 -meter-long missile has a launch mass of 12,300 kg. With its launch thrust of 450 kN, it can accommodate up to 720 kg payload to a peak altitude of 850 km. The payload of each capsule consists of six to eight different experiments. The capsule can be collected and reused after re-entry.