French Defense Agency Conducts First Test Launch of Sylex Experimental Sounding Rocket

The French defense procurement agency (DGA) carried out the first launch of the Sylex sounding rocket during the night of November 27–28 from the Landes site in Biscarrosse.

Developed by the agency with ArianeGroup, the Sylex rocket is designed to conduct flight testing of technologies linked to French deterrence, hypervelocity research, and civil-use experiments. Work on the system began in 2021 and aims to provide a sovereign launcher for upper-atmosphere and exo-atmospheric missions in the European market.

The system includes single-stage and two-stage rocket models and requires a dedicated launch site. With payload capacity up to 600 kilograms, Sylex is intended to carry multiple experiments to altitudes of several hundred kilometers depending on mission configuration.

The first validation flight confirmed the critical launch sequence and in-flight tracking of the onboard demonstrator. According to the agency, the result follows nearly three years of rapid design cycles carried out with the industrial partner.

The test used radars, optical systems, and telemetry deployed across the Biscarrosse and Hourtin facilities and the Monge measurement vessel.