The Dragon is a two-stage 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...

 solid propellant 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...

 used for high altitude research. Its first stage was a Stromboli

Stromboli

Stromboli is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. It is one of the eight Aeolian Islands, a volcanic arc north of Sicily. This name is a corruption of the Ancient Greek name Strongulē which was given to it...

 engine (diameter 56 cm) which burned 675 kg of fuel in 16 s and so produced a maximum thrust of 88 kN. A 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...

 engine was used as the upper stage. It belonged thereby to a family of solid-propellant rockets derived from the Belier, including 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...

, the Dauphin

Dauphin (rocket)

The Dauphin is a French sounding rocket, of which six versions were constructed between 1967 and 1978. It represents a modification of the starting stage of the Dragon with a larger payload nosecone....

 and 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...

. A payload of 30 to 120 kg could be carried on parabolic flights between altitudes of 390 to 700 km.