The Dauphin is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 sounding rocket

Sounding rocket

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

, of which six versions were constructed between 1967 and 1978. It represents a modification of the starting stage of the Dragon

Dragon (rocket)

The Dragon is a two-stage French solid propellant sounding rocket used for high altitude research. Its first stage was a Stromboli engine 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...

 with a larger payload nosecone.

The Dauphin has a diameter of 56 centimeters, a launch weight of 1.132 metric tons, a length of 6.21 meters, a takeoff thrust of 90 kN and a ceiling of 150 kilometers. It belonged to a family of solid-propellant

Solid fuel

Solid fuel refers to various types of solid material that are used as fuel to produce energy and provide heating, usually released through combustion....

 rockets including the Belier

Belier

Belier is the designation of a single-step French elevator research rocket, which in three versions between 1961 and 1970 by Hammaguir, Salto di Quirra, Ile you Levant and Kourou was started...

, the Centaure

Centaure

Centaure is the designation of a two-stage French sounding rocket consisting of a Belier starting stage and a Venus upper stage. The Centaure has been built in a number of 230 and has been launched from Hammaguir, Reggane, CELPA, Salto di Quirra, Esrange, Thumba, Sonmiani and Andøya...

, and the Dragon, along with the Eridan

Eridan

The Eridan is a two-stage French sounding rocket, which resulted from the use of the Stromboli engine of the Dragon and/or Dauphin as first and second stage. It belonged thereby to a family of solid-propellant rockets from the Belier, the Centaure, to the Dragon, which existed Dauphin and the Eridan...

.