Orion is the designation of a small American sounding rocket. The Orion has a length of 5.60 meters, a diameter of 0.35 m, a launch weight of 400 kg, a launch thrust of 7 kN and a ceiling of 85 kilometers. The Orion, built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, is also used as an upper stage of sounding rockets, usually paired with a Terrier missile as the first stage, although Nike, Taurus and VS-30 rockets are also used.
Two Orion versions exist:
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File:Orion-Original.jpg|Orion carrying experiments developed by students (June 8, 2006)
File:Improved Orion Sounding Rocket Scheme-01.jpg|Improved Orion scheme
File:Improved Orion Sounding Rocket-02.jpg|Improved Orion just after launch.
File:Orion Sounding Rocket-03.jpg|Improved Orion launch
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