SARA - Satélite de Reentrada Atmosférica is a Brazilian satellite project, with the objective of performing experiments in microgravity environment and returning them to the Earth.
SARA Suborbital
Configuration The "Sara suborbital" platform heights 350 kg and is divided into four subsystems:
Structural Electrical - includes cold gas actuators, designed to null the satellite's angular velocity after launch Recovery - 3 parachutes: pilot, drogue and main Experiment module (MEXP)
Flights
SARA Suborbital 1 / Operação São Lourenço The proposed flight schedule included a first sub-orbital test flight (SARA Suborbital 1) in 2014 using a VS-40 rocket launched from the Centro de Lançamento da Barreira do Inferno (Operação São Lourenço). The predicted apogee was 350 km with a range of 300 km. Time spent in microgravity would be around 8 minutes, after which the satellite would reenter the atmosphere and be recovered at sea, 100 km out from Parnaíba. On 13 November 2015 the launch was attempted, resulting in an explosion of the VS-40M V03 rocket on the pad.
SARA Suborbital 2 A second suborbital flight was planned (SARA Suborbital 2), to test flight attitude control system and de-orbit engine.
SARA Orbital The orbital version of the satellite will operate in a circular 300 km low Earth orbit, during a maximum of 10 days.
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