Orión was the designation of a
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 often ...
family of
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
,
which was launched between 1965 and 1971 at
CELPA (El Chamical),
CELPA (Mar Chiquita),
Tartagal and
Wallops Island
Wallops Island is a island in Accomack County, Virginia, part of the Virginia Barrier Islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States. It is just south of Chincoteague Island, a popular tourist destination.
Wallops Isla ...
.
Developed by the
Instituto de Investigaciones Aeronauticas y Espaciales (IIAE), An Orión flight on August 13, 1966 that reached an
apogee
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values.
Apsides perta ...
of 114 km, surpassing the
Kármán line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is a conventional definition of the Outer space#Boundary, edge of space; it is widely but not universally accepted. The international record-keeping body Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI ( ...
, made Argentina the first South American nation to launch a rocket into space.
Orión-1
The first version Orión-1 was flown twice in 1965 and 1966 from CELPA (El Chamical),
in order to test the engines and technologies.
It had a length of , a diameter of and a weight of .
Apogee was for a payload.
Solid fuel
Solid fuel refers to various forms of solid material that can be burnt to release energy, providing heat and light through the process of combustion. Solid fuels can be contrasted with liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. Common examples of solid fu ...
mass was with a burn time of 12 seconds.
Launches
Table of Orión-1 launches:
Gallery
File:CSA Orión-1.png, Orión-1 diagram
File:Argentinian sounding rockets shapes (ORIÓN I).jpg, Orión-1 diagram
File:Cohete sonda Orión I.jpg, Orión-1 photo
Orión-2
In November 1966, three tests of the updated Orión-2 took place from Wallops Island.
This version had a gross takeoff mass of and could carry a payload to an apogee of .
Its dimensions were in length and in diameter.
Orión-2 was launched 22 times from 1966 to 1971.
Besides Wallops, launch sites included CELPA (El Chamical), CELPA (Mar Chiquita) and Tartagal.
Launches
Table of Orión-2 launches:
Gallery
File:Argentinian sounding rockets shapes (ORIÓN II).jpg, Orión-2 diagram
File:Cohete Orión II O-10 en rampa.jpg, Orión-2 O-10 on the launch ramp
File:LANZAMIENTO DEL COHETE ORION II.jpg, Orión-2 launch from Chamical (August 13, 1966)
File:Carga util recuperada del Orión II.jpg, Payload recovered from Orión-2 at Wallops Island (November 1966)
File:OPERACIÓN ORION-ECLIPSE.jpg, Orión-2 rockets prepared for solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...
observations (November 10, 1966)
References
Solid-fuel rockets
Orión (rocket)
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