Orión (rocket)

Orión was the designation of a sounding rocket of Argentina, which was launched between 1965 and 1971 at CELPA (El Chamical), CELPA (Mar Chiquita), Tartagal and Wallops Island.

Developed by the Instituto de Investigaciones Aeronauticas y Espaciales (IIAE), Orión marked Argentina's entry into the club of space-faring nations, with a flight on 13 August 1966 that reached an apogee of 114 km surpassing the Kármán line.

Orión-1
The first version Orión-1 was flown twice in 1965 and 1966 from CELPA (El Chamical), in order to test the engines and technologies.

It had a length of 3.00 m, a diameter of 21 cm and a weight of 100 kg. Apogee was 80 km for a 10 kg payload. Solid fuel mass was 55 kg with a burn time of 12 seconds.

Orión-2
In November 1966, three tests of the updated Orión-2 took place from Wallops Island.

This version had a gross takeoff mass of 100 kg and could carry a 25 kg payload to an apogee of 160 km. Its dimensions were 3.77 m in length and 21 cm in diameter.

Orión-2 was launched 22 times from 1966 to 1971. Besides Wallops, launch sites included CELPA (El Chamical), CELPA (Mar Chiquita) and Tartagal.

Launches
Table of Orión launches: