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Space Launchers

Suborbital Vehicles

Rocket Ranges

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ONERA was created in May 1946 as the National Aeronautics Studies and Research Office. Its responsibilities covered all the aeronautics fields, but were extended to the space field in 1963. ONERA then became the National Aerospace Studies and Research Office.

Berenice
Like Antares, Berenice had four solid stages, but the total takeoff weight reached 3340 kg and the height 13.25 m. Two stages were fired upward, the next two downward. With its four motors functioning on the ascent, Berenice could have launched a 40 kg payload to 1000 km altitude.
The first stage, designated BER, comprised a main motor and around the rear part of it a group of four rotating auxiliary motors allowing control. The main motor was a Stromboli SEPR 739, 56 cm in diameter and 4.7 m in length weighing 1885 kg. With 1240 kg of Plastolane propellant, it delivered a total impulse of 2860 kNs in 20 seconds. The four auxiliary rockets were SEPR 167, 16 cm in diameter, with the nozzle canted at an angle of 45 degrees. With 23.5 kg of Epictete propellant, each provided 45 kNs in 21.6 seconds. The vehicle control was obtained by rotating these auxiliary motors around their longitudinal axis. The second stage was a Stromboli SEPR 740, 3.2 m long weighing 1050 kg of which 740 kg was propellant providing 1650 kNs in 18 seconds. After burn-out, it remained fixed to the upper stages to insure, by its fixed fins, the stabilization of the rocket that peaked at 270 km approximately. During the descent, at about 55 km altitude, the upper stages stabilized by conical skirts burned successively to accelerate the experimental mockup. The third stage SEPR 200 (Tramontane block) was 2.35 m long and 33.5 cm in diameter, weighed 280 kg with 156 kg of propellant, and provided 333 kNs in 6.7 seconds. The 4th stage (Melanie block) 22 cm in diameter, was 2.95 m long and weighed 120 kg (including payload); its 22 kg of propellant delivered 49 kNs in 4.4 seconds. Around 20 km of altitude, when the maximum speed of about Mach 12 was reached, the test itself began and lasted about twenty seconds.
Eleven Berenice of this type were launched between 1962 and 1965, a twelfth launched in 1966 was used to prepare the Titus experiment for studying a solar eclipse.

In April 1963, ONERA presented a project for a small satellite (3.5 kg) called Satmos, which could have been launched by a modified Berenice rocket on a 250/1800 km orbit. This launcher was to be available in 1964, one year before Diamant. But the utility of this operation was not obvious and the project was cancelled.

From 1965, ONERA undertook, with the support of the DMA, a new program of re-entry experiments named ELECTRE. This program planned four flight tests with Tibere rockets.

Tibere
Tibere was a three-stage rocket measuring 14.5 m in height and weighing 4.5 tons. The first stage was a BER cluster (SEPR 739 + 4 SEPR 167), the second was another SEPR 739, while the third stage was a P.064 inherited from Diamant A. The first two stages fired during the ascent made the upper composite (3rd stage + payload) culminate at 150 km altitude. This composite was beforehand directed towards the descent trajectory by an attitude control device (CASSIOPEE). P.064 accelerated the warhead mockup in descent between 130 to 60 km altitude. The experiment itself occurred between 60 and 20 km and lasted ten seconds until destruction of the payload.
Two flights only were actually carried out in February 1971 and March 1972.

Note: The two Tibere launches had been preceded by an experiment named CRAPEL (Cible-RAdar Preparatoire a ELectre). This experiment used a Belier rocket with a specific second stage (52 kNs in 10.5 sec) mounted upside down under the fairing.

Daniel
Some equipment destined for the Antares rockets had been tested on a 3-stage rocket that was also used to develop atmosphere studies.
This rocket, designated Daniel (initially OPD-220-ADX), comprised a SPRAN 50 booster, 39 cm in diameter and 2.54 m long, a sustainer stage powered by a Jericho block (largely used thereafter on Belier rockets), an upper stage of the same type as that of Antares and a fairing slightly longer. Its total height reached approximately 8.5 m and its maximum mass 813 kg. It was used three times between 1959 and 1961.

From elements developed for the Berenice rockets, ONERA created two sounding rockets destined for various scientific studies.

Tacite
The first of these sounding rockets was the Tacite rocket (Tentative of Analysis of Infra-red Contrast Ground-Space). It was a single-stage vehicle using a SEPR 739-2 motor, stabilized by a cruciform tailfin equipped with small nitrogen spin nozzles.
With a takeoff mass of approximately 2 tons, Tacite could launch a 285 kg payload to 160 km altitude. This rocket was fired four times (with one failure) between 1965 and 1968.

Titus

Titus
The second in this series of sounding rockets was the Titus rocket, especially developed for observing the Sun during the eclipse of November 1966. This rocket used the first two stages of Berenice (with a second stage SEPR 740-3 slightly longer). The BER cluster of the first stage allowed a high precision trajectory particularly useful for these experiments.
The vehicle measured 11.5 m high, weighed 3 tons, and could launch 400 kg to 250 km altitude.
Two Titus rockets were launched successfully on November 12, 1966, from Chaco in Argentina, with the collaboration of the Argentine CNIE.

Note : ONERA contributed thereafter to the CNES astronomical sounding rocket program by providing the CASSIOPEE device (Attitude Control by Inertial and Stellar Sensors for Orientation and Aiming of Experiments on the Stars). This device flew ten times between 1968 and 1975, with 2 ELECTRE and 8 astronomy experiments.

Tables
a/ ONERA rockets evolution
b/ Re-entry experiments
c/ Sounding rockets launches
Listings compiled with Philippe Varnoteaux's help, University of Reims, France

Links
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