Dragon (rocket)
This article is about the French sounding rocket of the 1970s. For the newer cargo- and man-rated family of spacecraft by SpaceX, see Dragon (spacecraft).
The Dragon is a two-stage French solid propellant sounding rocket used for high altitude research. Its first stage was a Stromboli engine (diameter 56 cm) which burned 675 kg of fuel in 16 s and so produced a maximum thrust of 88 kN. A Belier engine was used as the upper stage. It belonged thereby to a family of solid-propellant rockets derived from the Belier, including the Centaure, the Dauphin and the Eridan. A payload of 30 to 120 kg could be carried on parabolic flights between altitudes of 390 to 700 km.