Dragon (rocket)
| Country of origin | France |
|---|---|
| Application | high altitude research |
| sounding rocket | |
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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)