The éesdessaisdenginsspéInterarmy Special Vehicles Test Centre (CIEES) (French: Centre Interarmées d'Essais d'Engins Spéciaux) was France's first space launch and ballistic missile testing facility. Outside France, the facility is often referred to by the name of the nearest town, Hammaguir (also called Hammaguira). It was established on 24 April 1947, by ministerial decree as the Special Weapons Test Center (CEES, Centre d'essais d'engins spéciaux) for use by the French Army. In 1948, it was turned over to the French Air Force, who renamed it CIEES. Its remote location in the middle of the Saharan Desert and its relative closeness to the Equator (compared with Metropolitan France) made it an attractive launch site for missiles and orbital rockets.
History
The origins of CIEES and the French missile and space program date to the end of the Second World War. On 12 June 1945, less than a month after V-E Day, the War Department ordered the study of self-propelled projectiles (rockets). On 13 August, the Directorate of Studies and Manufactures of Armaments (DEFA) proposed the creation of a Rocket Studies Center to continue studying and developing ballistic missiles. The Center aimed initially to attempt to reconstruct the V-2 rocket based on blueprints captured from V-2 launch sites in France. In November 1946, a mission arrived at Colomb-Béchar, French Algeria, to study the site's suitability as a missile range and launch facility. CIEES began operations at Colomb-Béchar six months later on 24 April 1947.
The Air Force built two launch pads at Colomb-Béchar: the small B0 pad for sounding rockets, and B1, completed in December 1949, for larger missiles. However, both of these launch sites were suitable only for smaller missiles, so a larger launch pad – dubbed CIEES B2 – was eventually built at Hammaguir, southwest of Colomb-Béchar, in May 1952. CIEES B2 quickly expanded to include five launch pads: Bacchus, for solid fueled sounding rockets, Blandine, for liquid fueled sounding rockets, Beatrice, for testing the Hawk surface-to-air missile and the Cora and Europa rockets, Brigette/A, for the "precious stones" series of rockets, and CB, for the Monica sounding rocket.
After the Algerian War ceasefire in 1962, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment was sent to the Colomb-Béchar region. Its main mission is to monitor the CIEES's sites. In 1967, the order to evacuate the site was given and the regiment was the last unit to leave the South for the French base of Mers-el-Kébir.
CIEES remained in use until 1 July 1967, when it was finally turned over to the government of newly independent Algeria. French withdrawal from the CIEES facility and other military bases in Algeria was stipulated by the 1962 Évian Accords that ended the Algerian War of Independence. Following CIEES's closure, French space launches were moved to the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, while missile tests were moved to DGA Essais de missiles in the department of Landes in metropolitan France.
Directors of CIEES
The Director of CIEES was directly appointed by the Minister of the Armed Forces. They were required to also be the Commander of the Colomb-Béchar Airbase (see :fr:Base aérienne 145 Colomb-Béchar) and Commander of military installations in the Sahara. The Director was required to be from the Air Force, and the Deputy Director was required to be from the Army. In order, CIEES was commanded by: Colonel Robert Aubinière Colonel Hériard Colonel Charbonneau General Millet General Y. Hautière
Launches
As France's main launch site from 1947 to 1967, CIEES was responsible for all early milestones of the French space program. France's first successful rocket launch, of the Véronique sounding rocket, was from CIEES on 22 May 1952. France's first satellite, the Astérix-1, was launched from CIEES on a Diamant rocket on 26 November 1965. CIEES was also the launch site for France's first animal in space: a cat named Félicette, launched to an altitude of on a Véronique rocket. She survived the flight, making her the only cat to do so.