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, Kourou, Salto di Quirra, Sonmiani, Thumba, and Vík í Mýrdal between 1962 and 1973.