Véronique was a French liquid-fuelled sounding rocket of the 1950s. It was the first liquid-fuel research rocket in Western Europe.
Véronique was a French-led project that had its roots in the German V-2 rocket, and was partially developed by German scientists who had worked in Peenemünde. A successor to the cancelled Super V-2, Véronique was built between 1950 and 1969 in several versions, of which the P2, P6 and R were only experimental models. They were made in Vernon, Eure. The name Véronique is a portmanteau of Vernon-électronique, and is also a common French first name.
On 20 February 1959, the first Véronique launch was performed, although it was recorded as a failure. One day later, the second launch took place, which attained an altitude of . The last Veronique-61 was launched on 31 May 1974. The programme was eclipsed by new rockets, such as the wholly indigenous Diamant launcher.
History
Background
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, various nations were keen to incorporate recent military advances into their own armed forces; the newly liberated nation of France was no exception.
During mid-1946, France embarked on development of a V-2 derivative, popularly referred to as the Super V-2. France's allies were unwilling to supply V-2 components, yet establishing a completely independent production of all components in France was estimated to take at least five years, by which point the Super V-2 was expected to have become obsolete. Thus, it was decided that two separate programmes would be pursued; in addition to work on the Super V-2, a purely French derivative, initially referred to as project 4212, would be designed by a separate team. During 1948, the Super V-2 project was abandoned in favour other efforts, cumulating in project 4213, a one-tenth scale rocket that was given the name Veronique, a portmanteau of Vernon et electronique.
During March 1949, work formally commenced on Veronique. The project had the primary objective of delivering a flight test vehicle for liquid rocket engine development; a secondary purpose was the launching of scientific payloads at high altitudes. Principal responsibility for manufacturing was held by the Laboratoire de recherches balistiques et aérodynamiques (LRBA). However, it was not until May 1952 that the first full-scale Véronique-N (Normal) was launched.
Amongst the tests in aid of scientific research that were conducted using the rocket were a series of biological experiments involving live animals. On account of the available payload capacity and thrust output available via Véronique, the use of larger animals was not possible, thus rats and cats were used; these were carried within a sealed container within the rocket's nose cone which was designed to be retrievable and for the return of its occupant alive. One consequence of these flights was the only recorded launch of a cat into space.
By 1965, the Véronique had begun to be eclipsed by a newer rocket, which was also entirely indigenously designed, the Diamant expendable launch system.
Variants
Five Veronique versions were developed: