Monica (rocket)

Monica is the designation of a small French sounding rocket. It was intended as a cheaper counterpart to the relatively expensive Veronique rockets.
Monica was a 3-stage rocket, with all stages burning solid fuel: the Melanie for the first stage and Theodore and Oreste for the second and third stages. The first stage delivered 450 daN for 3 seconds and the two upper stages deliver 50 daN for 15 and 5.5 seconds, respectively.
It was built in several versions, which were between 3.05 and 6.27 m long and had a takeoff weight between 62 and 154 kg.
It was launched several times between 1955 and 1962 at the CIEES launch site in Hammaguir, French Algeria, and the Ile du Levant site in France.
The Monica design process encountered a number of difficulties, leading to many failed tests and the early cancellation of the program in 1962. However, elements of its design were later incorporated into more successful ONERA test vehicles.

Versions

Monica vehicles used different solid fuel rocket engines:

Stage / Engine	Length	Diameter	Propellant mass	Total impulse	Burning time
Melanie	1065	160	15	3100	5
"2Melanie"	2170	160	30	6200	5
Prosper	1180	160	23.5	4700	10
Theodore	815	130	9.4	1800	10
Oreste	490	130	3.6	680	8

Monica vehicles had several versions, according to the rocket stages used:

Type	Stages	Length	Total weight	Payload weight	Peak altitude
Monica I	Melanie-Theodore-Oreste	3050	62	15	53
Monica II	Melanie-Theodore-Theodore	3375	71	15	103
Monica III	"2Melanie"-Prosper-Theodore	4845	118	15	145
Monica IVA	Melanie-Prosper-Prosper	5115	123	15	94
Monica IVB	"2Melanie"-Melanie-Prosper	5115	123	15	94
Monica V	"2Melanie"-Prosper-Prosper	6270	154	15	160