sub-orbital spaceflight
Sign in to saveAlso known as sub-orbital flight, suborbital spaceflight, suborbital flight, conducting experiment(s)
spaceflight where spacecraft leaves the astronomical body but doesn't reach orbit
~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Video of sub-orbital spaceflight of Black Brant IX sounding rocket
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the vehicle reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will not become an artificial satellite nor will it reach escape velocity.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sub-orbital spaceflight” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.