Diamond (rocket)

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Diamond in the Musée de l'air et de l'espace in Le Bourget

Diamant is the name of a family of French launch vehicles that were used to launch a number of small satellites from 1965 to 1975 . This rocket was built in different versions.

Diamond A

The first version of this rocket , with which France's first satellite " Astérix " was launched on November 26, 1965 in Hammaguir , had the first stage of the Emeraude rocket10 meters long, 1.4 meters in diameter and weighing 14.7 tons. Your LRBA Vexin engine delivered a thrust of 269 kN for 93 seconds. The second step was 4.7 meters long and 80 centimeters in diameter. It weighed 2.9 tons and developed 165 kN of thrust for 44 seconds. The third stage was 2 meters long and 65 centimeters in diameter. Her weight was 709 kilograms. It burned for 45 seconds and developed a thrust of 27 kN to 53 kN. A fully assembled Diamant A was 18.95 meters high and weighed 18.4 tons.

Diamond B

The Diamant B was a further developed version of the Diamant A with more thrust. Its first step was 14.2 meters long, 1.4 meters in diameter and weighed 20.1 tons. Depending on the flight altitude, your engine developed a thrust of 316 kN to 400 kN for 116 seconds. The second stage of the diamond B corresponded to that of the diamond A. The third stage was 1.67 meters long and had a diameter of 80 centimeters. She developed a thrust of 24 kN for 46 seconds. A fully assembled Diamant B was 23.5 meters high and weighed 24.6 tons.

Diamond BP4

The Diamant BP4, the development of which began in January 1972, had the same first and third stage as the Diamant B. Its second stage, which was derived from an SLBM , was 2.28 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter and developed a thrust of 180 kN for 55 seconds.

Start list

date Type Launch site payload Remarks
November 26, 1965 Diamond A Hammaguir Asterix success
17th February 1966 Diamond A Hammaguir diapason success
February 8, 1967 Diamond A Hammaguir Diademe 1 Partial success  (orbit too low)
February 15, 1967 Diamond A Hammaguir Diademe 2 success
March 10, 1970 Diamond B Kourou Mika / Wika / Dial success
December 12, 1970 Diamond B Kourou Péole success
April 15, 1971 Diamond B Kourou Tournesol success
6th December 1971 Diamond B Kourou Polaire Failure  (second stage failed)
May 21, 1972 Diamond B Kourou Castor / Pollux Partial success  (payload fairing not detached)
February 6, 1975 Diamond BP4 Kourou Starlette success
17th May 1975 Diamond BP4 Kourou Castor / Pollux success
September 27, 1975 Diamond BP4 Kourou aura success

literature

  • France Durand-de Jongh: De la fusée Véronique au lanceur Ariane. Une histoire d'hommes 1945–1979. Stock, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-234-04659-9 .
  • Hervé Moulin: La France dans l'Espace 1959–1979 - Contribution à l'effort spatial européen. ESA Publications Division, Noordwijk 2006, ISBN 92-9092-549-3 . ( esa.int PDF, 2.3 MB).
  • Bernd Leitenberger: European launchers volume 1. From the diamond to the Ariane 4 - Europe's rocky road in the Orbit Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 3-8370-9591-6 .

Web links

Commons : Diamond (rocket)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files