The Nike-Cajun was a two-stage

Multistage rocket

A multistage rocket is a rocket that usestwo or more stages, each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A tandem or serial stage is mounted on top of another stage; a parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of or...

 sounding rocket

Sounding rocket

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

 built by combining a Nike

Project Nike

Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953...

 base stage with a Cajun

Cajun (rocket)

The Cajun was an American sounding rocket developed during the 1950s. It was extensively used for scientific experiments by NASA and the United States military between 1956 and 1976.-Development:...

 upper stage. It was launched 714 times between 1956 and 1976 and was the most frequently used sounding rocket of the western world. The Nike Cajun had a launch weight of 698 kg (1539 lb), a payload of 23 kg (51 lb), a launch thrust of 246 kN (55,300 lbf) and a maximum altitude of 120 km (394,000 ft). It had a diameter of 42 cm (1 ft 4½ in) and a length of 7.70 m (25 ft 3 in). The fuel time of the Nike amounted to 3 seconds, those the Cajun 2.8 seconds. The maximum speed of the Nike-Cajun was 4,200 mph (6760 km/h).

The Cajun stage of this rocket was named for the Cajun

Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...

 people of south Louisiana because one of the rocket's designers, J. G. Thibodaux, was a Cajun.

The Nike-Cajun configuration was also used by one variation of the MQR-13 BMTS

MQR-13 BMTS

The XMQR-13A Ballistic Missile Target System was an unguided target rocket developed by the United States Army during the 1960s, intended for use in the development of missile defense systems...

target rocket.