VE 231 Saphir (French, meaning sapphire) was a French two stage sounding rocket.
It was part of the pierres précieuses (fr.: gemstones) program, that included five prototypes Agathe, Topaze, Emeraude, Rubis and Saphir, leading up to the Diamant orbital rocket.
Its codename, VE 231, indicates that it is a "Véhicule Expérimental" (Experimental Vehicle) with 2 stages, using liquid and solid propellant (code 3), and guided (code 1).
Saphir was used between 1965 and 1967 and had a payload capacity of . The rocket could reach a maximum altitude of and produced thrust of at launch. Saphir had a launch mass of , a diameter of and a length of .
Saphir variants were designed to allow testing of radio-controlled guidance (VE231P), inertial guidance (VE231G), and warhead separation and ablative heat shielding of a re-entry vehicle (VE231R).
The Diamant rocket, which carried the first French satellite, Asterix-1, into orbit, was developed from the Saphir with the addition of a third stage. After the successful launch of Diamant, Saphir rockets were used to test technologies for France's burgeoning intercontinental ballistic missile development—as mentioned before, radio and inertial guidance, warhead separation, and ablative heat shielding of a re-entry vehicle.
Launches Saphir was launched 15 times from CIEES, Hammaguir, from July 5, 1965, to January 27, 1967. NumberDateVariantPayloadApogee (km)Result 1 5 Jul 1965VE231P Reentry P11000Success 2 10 Jul 1965VE231P Reentry P250Failure 3 9 Oct 1965VE231P Reentry P31150Success 4 13 Mar 1966VE231G Reentry G11000Success 5 18 Mar 1966VE231G Reentry G21000Success 6 28 Mar 1966VE231R Reentry R21000Success 7 5 Apr 1966VE231R Reentry R11000Success 8 23 Jun 1966VE231R Reentry R41000Success 9 5 Oct 1966VE231R Reentry R31000Success 10 28 Oct 1966VE231G Reentry G31000Success 11 2 Nov 1966VE231G Reentry G41000Success 12 2 Dec 1966VE231R Reentry R550Failure 13 13 Dec 1966VE231R Reentry R61000Success 14 19 Jan 1967VE231G Reentry G51000Success 15 27 Jan 1967VE231G Reentry G61000Success
See also French space program Veronique (rocket)
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