RX (rocket family)

The RX rocket family (Roket Eksperimental, Experimental Rocket) is a series of solid-fuel rockets developed by the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN).

They are simply named by their diameter in millimeters; for example, the RX-250 has a diameter of 250 mm. The propellant used is HTPB-based composite propellant.

Individual boosters
This family is composed of:

'' Note: Characteristics in italics are design values, they have not been measured yet. ''

RX-250 was launched eight times from 1987 to 2007. RX-320 was launched twice in 2008 and once again in 2014. RX-420 flew just once in 2009; it is superseded by RX-450 which was launched on 13 May 2015.

, the next booster version RX-550 is under construction; the larger ones are only on the drawing board.

In 2017 successful launches of RX 450 and RX 1220 were carried out from the Space and Atmospheric Observation & Technology Testing Center at Garut, West Java. The RX 1220 is a based on the R-HAN122 B.

Two RX-1220 rockets were launched at the Karang Papak Air Force Base on December 23, 2018.

Multi-stage rockets
Once the solid boosters are fully qualified, LAPAN plans to assemble several of them into multi-stage rockets called Roket Pengorbit Satelit or RPS. Four staging configurations have been retained so far:
 * RPS-01 Variant 1 (ex-RPS-420)
 * First stage: 3 x RX-420
 * Second stage: 1 x RX-420
 * Third stage: 1 x RX-420 (shorter)
 * Fourth stage: 1 x RX-320
 * Total height: 10.00 m


 * RPS-01 Variant 2b
 * First stage: 1 x RX-550 + 2 x RX-420
 * Second stage: 1 x RX-550
 * Third stage: 1 x RX-320
 * Total height: 15.75 m


 * RPS-01 Variant 3a
 * First stage: 1 x RX-450
 * Second stage: 1 x RX-450
 * Total height: 10.75 m


 * RPS-01 Variant 3b
 * First stage: 1 x RX-450 + 2 x RX-320
 * Second stage: 1 x RX-450
 * Third stage: 1 x RX-320
 * Total height: 11.75 m

Earlier plans for the Pengorbitan-1 and -2 orbital launch vehicles (RPS-420s) were based on the RX-420 engine which was superseded by the RX-450. , integration work is proceeding on variants 3a and 3b, whose engines have all been successfully flight-qualified.

Since 2019, LAPAN's rocket division PUSTEKROKET has collaborated with AASPT and CGWIC of China in designing newer multiple stage sounding rockets. The new rockets will be called RX-452 which combined 400 mm of first stage, and 450 mm of second stage. The design is based on TK-32 sounding rocket as well as RX-450. It is expected the newer design to be able to reach above 100 km, simulation showed the rocket is able to reach 200 km.


 * RX-452
 * First stage: 1 x RX-400
 * Second stage: 1 x RX-450
 * Total height: 8.6 m