25 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
25 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "ARCAspace"
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chunk: 1/8
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARCAspace"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T12:56:53.489424+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association (Romanian: Asociația Română pentru Cosmonautică și Aeronautică), also known as ARCAspace, is an aerospace company based in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania. It builds rockets, high-altitude balloons, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
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It was founded in 1999 as a non-governmental organization in Romania by the Romanian engineer and entrepreneur Dumitru Popescu and other rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts. Since then, ARCA has launched two stratospheric rockets and four large-scale stratospheric balloons including a cluster balloon. It was awarded two governmental contracts with the Romanian government and one contract with the European Space Agency.
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ARCASpace is currently developing several rocket systems, both orbital and suborbital, under the EcoRocket program. These vehicles include the CER rocket systems, the EcoRocket Demonstrator, Nano, 5 & Heavy, and the A1 strategic anti-ballistic interceptor. ARCA has yet to launch a vehicle above the Karman line, or sent a payload to orbit, with the majority of their projects having been abandoned due to various reasons, often including financial or regulatory constraints.
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== History ==
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=== 1999–2004: Demonstrator rocket family ===
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ARCA was established as Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association (Romanian: Asociația Română pentru Cosmonautică și Aeronautică), a non-governmental organization in 1999 by Dumitru Popescu and other rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts. Their goal was to construct and launch space rockets.
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After experimenting with designs for different fuels and rocket engine types, including solid fuel rockets, they decided to use fiberglass for engine and tank construction and hydrogen peroxide as fuel.
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Their first vehicle was named Demonstrator and was a 10 metres (33 ft) long, unguided, self-stabilized rocket. It never flew, instead it was used in various public exhibitions to attract funds and sponsorships. Their second rocket, Demonstrator 2, was constructed in 2003. For this, ARCA created their first rocket engine testing installation where they tested their hydrogen peroxide engine. After the tests were successful, they constructed Demonstrator 2B which was an improved version of their previous rocket. It had a 4.5 m (15 ft) length and 0.77 m (2 ft 6 in) diameter and used an 18 m (59 ft) high launch pad.
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In 2003 ARCA also signed up for the Ansari X Prize international competition and started design for the Orizont suborbital vehicle capable of carrying a crew of two up to an altitude of 100 km (62 mi). Orizont was to be ARCA's competing vehicle for the Ansari X Prize. It was designed to use a disposable jet engine up to an altitude of 15 km (9.3 mi) and then ignite its main hydrogen peroxide rocket engine in order to propel it to the 100 km (62 mi) altitude.
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On September 9, 2004, ARCA successfully launched the Demonstrator 2B rocket from Cape Midia Air Force Base. Because of powerful wind gusts up to 60 km/h (37 mph), they were forced to use only 20 percent of the intended fuel quantity in order to keep with the allocated safety zone by the Air Force. The altitude reached was 1,200 m (3,900 ft). 90 journalists from Romania, Germany, and Austria were present at the launch. After the launch, ARCA started construction of the Orizont spaceplane and completed the aircraft structure by 2005.
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=== 2005–2010: Stabilo and Helen rockets === |