CELPA (Mar Chiquita) also known as CELPA Atlántico'' (Centro de Experimentación y Lanzamiento de Proyectiles Autopropulsados)'' was a rocket launch site in

Mar Chiquita Mar Chiquita is a coastal lagoon in the southeast province of Buenos Aires in eastern Argentina. It is located by the Atlantic coast, 30 km north of Mar del Plata. The area is a natural reserve where a number of animal species live around ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, north of

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

. The launch site was in service from 1968 to 1976 and was mainly used for launching rockets of the types Orión-2,

Arcas In Greek mythology, Arcas (; Ancient Greek: Ἀρκάς) was a hunter who became king of Arcadia. He was remembered for having taught people the arts of weaving and baking bread and for spreading agriculture to Arcadia. Family Arcas was the so ...

Rocketsonde 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 ...

and Dragon I. The tests from CELPA Atlántico were sponsored by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

since 1969. There was a total number of 69 tests. The compound was used by agencies like

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

, Meteorological Rocket Network (USA),

CNES The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is und ...

(France) and CONAE (Argentina). As of 2016, the site is used by the

Argentine Air Force "Argentine Wings" , mascot = , anniversaries = 10 August (anniversary) 1 May (Baptism of fire during the Falklands War) , equipment = 139 aircraft , equipment_label = , battles = * Operation Independence * Operation Soberanía * Falklan ...

and

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

to test anti-aircraft weaponry.''La Fuerza Aérea celebró nuevo aniversario de la incorporación de sus sistemas de armas''
La Capital, 8 October 2009

Notes and references

See also