Sounding rockets are small-ish, usually solid propelled rockets used principally for upper-atmosphere research. Importantly they are originally designed for sub

Sounding rockets are small-ish, usually solid propelled rockets used principally for upper-atmosphere research. Importantly they are originally designed for sub-orbital flight. The notable thing here is not only bringing it to orbit, but doing so with a payload. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket