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 ...
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 ...
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
Hammaguir (also written Hamaguir and Hammaguira) ( ar, Øماقير) 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 fo ...
,
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
;
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 sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...
;
Kourou, French Guiana
Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It is ...
;
Mar Chiquita, Argentina;
Salto di Quirra, Sardinia;
Sonmiani, Pakistan;
Thumba, India; and
VÃk à Mýrdal, Iceland.
References
Sounding rockets of France
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