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Agate (rocket)

9/3/2026

Agate (rocket)

VE 110 Agate is the designation of an unguided French test rocket developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 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. The Agate has a length of 8.50 metres, a diameter of 0.80 metres, a start mass of 3.2 tonnes, a takeoff thrus

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VE 110 Agate is the designation of an unguided French test rocket developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 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. The Agate has a length of 8.50 metres, a diameter of 0.80 metres, a start mass of 3.2 tonnes, a takeoff thrust of 186 kN and a ceiling of 20 km. It used a NA801 Mammouth solid propellant rocket engine (same as the Rubis VE-210).

The initial version was designated VE (Véhicule Expérimental) 110, while the VE 110RR version was used to develop recovery procedures at sea. The name indicates that it is a "Véhicule Expérimental" (Experimental Vehicle) with 1 stage, using solid propulsion (code 1), and not guided (code 0).

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This article is an automated import of the Wikipedia article "Agate (rocket)", available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agate_(rocket) . Text is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.