 Astérix (satellite)

Astérix, the first French satellite, was launched on November 26, 1965 by a Diamant A rocket from the CIEES launch site at Hammaguir, French Algeria.With "Astérix", France became the sixth country to have an artificial satellite in orbit after the USSR ("Sputnik 1", 1957), the United States ("Explorer 1", 1958), the United Kingdom ("Ariel 1", 1962), Canada ("Alouette 1", 1962), and Italy ("San Marco 1", 1964), and the third to launch a satellite on its own (the UK, Canada and Italy's satellites were launched on American rockets).