
The Dragon is a
two-stage French
solid propellant sounding rocket used for high altitude research between 1962 and 1973.
It belonged thereby to a family of solid-propellant rockets derived from the
Bélier, including the
Centaure, the
Dauphin and the
Éridan.
The dragon's first stage was a
Stromboli engine (diameter 56 cm) which burned 675 kg of propellant in 16 seconds and so produced a maximum thrust of 88 kN.
Versions of the
Bélier engine were used as upper stages.
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-3)
Versions
The Dragon was built in several versions including the Dragon-2B, and Dragon-3:
Launches
Dragons have been launched from
Andøya,
Biscarrosse,
Dumont d'Urville,
CELPA (El Chamical),
CIEES,
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most i ...
,
Kourou,
Salto di Quirra,
Sonmiani,
Thumba, and
VÃk à Mýrdal between 1962 and 1973.
See also
*
Belier
*
Centaure
*
Dauphin
*
Éridan
References
Sud-Aviation Belier rocket family
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