Centaure was a two-stage French

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...

consisting of a Belier (rocket) starting stage and a Venus upper stage. It was operated by CNES between 1961 and 1986. The Centaure has been built in a number of 230 and has been launched from the CIEES/

Hammaguir Hammaguir (also written Hamaguir and Hammaguira) ( ar, حماقير) is a village in Abadla District, Béchar Province, Algeria, south-west of Béchar. It lies on the N50 national highway between Béchar and Tindouf. The location is notable for ...

missile range, Reggane,

CELPA CELPA (El Chamical) ''(Centro de Experimentación y Lanzamiento de Proyectiles Autopropulsados)'' was a rocket launch site in Argentina, near El Chamical, in the La Rioja Province. The launch site was in service between 1963 and 1973 and was mai ...

, Salto di Quirra, Esrange, Thumba, Sonmiani, and Andøya. It had a maximum

payload Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of ...

of 60 kg, a maximum height of 140 km, a launch thrust of 44 kN, a launch weight of 457 kg, a diameter of 0.28 m and a length of 6.02 m. It belongs to a family of solid-propellant rockets consisting of the Belier, Centaure,

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

, Dauphin, and Eridan rockets.

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20131019123755/http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/centaure.htm Sounding rockets of France {{rocket-stub