Redstone Sparta

The name is an acronym for Special Anti-missile Research Tests, Australia, and it describes the purpose well: a joint American, British and Australian effort to understand what happens to a warhead on re-entry. The United States supplied the hardware — surplus Army Redstones — and Australia the Woomera range and its LA-8 pad.

Two solid stages went on top of the Redstone: a Thiokol Antares 2 borrowed from the Scout launcher as the second, and a BE-3 Alcyone motor as the third. Both were spin-stabilised, turning at roughly 150 revolutions per minute before first-stage separation. The third stage was there for speed rather than height: it drove the test article down into the atmosphere at around six kilometres per second, the regime the programme existed to measure.

Ten vehicles were built, one of them held in reserve. The first launch, on 28 November 1966, failed and was destroyed by range safety; the eight that followed, through October 1967, all succeeded, carrying re-entry payloads known simply as Sparta 1 to 9. Early in the campaign someone proposed putting the leftover vehicle to scientific use, and WRESAT was the result: on 29 November 1967 the final Sparta placed it in polar orbit, making Australia one of the very few nations to have orbited a satellite from its own soil.

The first stage of that last rocket came down in the Simpson Desert and stayed there until searches led by the explorer Dick Smith brought it to light; it was recovered in 1990. Remains of a Sparta first stage are on display today at the Woomera rocket park.