Sounding rockets (1968 - 1981)

On 9 April 1968, the first launch facilities went into operation to launch a sounding rocket, named Véronique. The control centre and the flight safety room had not yet been completed, which meant that the operations manager and the flight safety manager had to share the meteorological building.

The flight successfully tested the space centre’s new operational resources (weather, location, flight safety), as well as the recovery at sea of the rocket nose cone containing a payload equipped with a radio beacon. 

The sounding rocket launch facilities, located around 7 km from the Technical Centre, consist of a launch centre, two assembly halls and four launch platforms, providing the main resources needed to prepare sounding rockets and carry out the launch sequence.

Named Véronique, Bélier, Centaure, Dragon, Vesta, Eridan, etc., thirteen different models of these small rockets have lifted off from the French Guiana Space Centre. Equipped with numerous pressure, temperature and wind speed sensors, they measure the thermodynamic environment encountered by the launcher as it soars through the atmosphere. 

Between 1968 and 1981, 412 rockets and balloons were launched from this site. The launch of Super-Arcas rockets, 16 in all, continued at the space centre until 1992 to support Ariane launches (in particular after the launch of each new version of Ariane 4). Super-Loky sounding rockets were also used on Ariane 5 qualification flights to determine wind density and direction at an altitude of 60 km, the separation level of the launcher’s two large boosters.