Space and Astronomy Atlas

How The Universe Works
Launch Vehicles

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France

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France's first satellite launch vehicle, developed independently of any alliance and used to launch Asterix in November 1965, making France the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to orbit a satellite with its own rocket and the only one to do so without either superpower's ICBM heritage behind it.

Facts
Vehicle Class
Light-lift expendable launch vehicle 1
Manufacturer
CNES 2
First Flight Date
1965-11-26 2
Date of its first successful flight, carrying the Asterix satellite.
Status
Retired in 1975; France folded its launch vehicle program into the multinational Ariane effort thereafter. 2
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