The Dragon is a
two-stage French
solid propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
used for high altitude research.
The dragon's first stage was a
Stromboli engine (diameter 56 cm) which burned 675 kg of fuel in 16 seconds and so produced a maximum thrust of 88 kN. A
Bélier engine was used as the upper stage. It belonged thereby to a family of solid-propellant rockets derived from the Bélier, including the
Centaure
Centaure or Le Centaure is the French name of the mythological creature the centaur, and may also refer to:
Ships
*, a French Navy ship in service from 1712 to 1756
*, a French Navy ship that sank in 1750
*, a 74-gun ship of the line of the Frenc ...
, the
Dauphin and the
Éridan. A payload of 30 to 120 kg could be carried on parabolic with apogees between 440 km (270 mi) (Dragon 2B)
and 560 km (340 mi)(Dragon III)
The Dragon was built in several versions including the Dragon-2B,
and Dragon-3,
Dragons have been launched from
Andøya, Norway;
Biscarrosse, France;
Dumont d'Urville, Antarctica;
Chamical, Argentina;
CIEES in
Hammaguir,
Algeria
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, relig ...
;
Kerguelen Islands;
Kourou, French Guiana;
Mar Chiquita, Argentina;
Salto di Quirra, Sardinia;
Sonmiani, Pakistan;
Thumba, India; and
Vík í Mýrdal, Iceland.
References
Sounding rockets of France
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