Space Physics
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—It’s been a long wait, but it was worth it. The Black Brant XII sounding rocket with the CASCADES II experiment launched and flew through an active aurora display March 20 at 3:04 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time. The successful launch occurred after 20 nights of preparing and then waiting to launch the NASA rocket. The CASCADES II team needed very specific conditions and clear weather for an optimal launch. 
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Four NASA rockets launched from Poker Flat Research Range during a three-hour span on the morning of Feb. 18, 2009. The rockets, carrying payloads that emitted glowing vapor trails that help scientists study turbulence in the upper atmosphere, launched at 12:59 a.m., 1:29 a.m., 1:59 a.m., and 2:49 a.m. Alaska Standard Time. The whitish trails, some resembling corkscrews in the sky, were visible in many parts of interior and northern Alaska.
Second mission a success in 2009 rocket campaign at Poker Flat Research Range
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—After days of waiting for precise aurora conditions, a team from the University of Iowa finally saw the launch of its two scientific sounding rockets from Poker Flat Research Range. The NASA rockets launched Jan. 29, just before 1 a.m. Alaska Standard Time, and flew through an auroral curtain, collecting data throughout their flights.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—The University of Alaska purchased its unmanned aircraft in 2006 and the 40-pound robotic plane can fly up to 20 hours at a time, collecting data even through the harshest conditions. These superlatives make the Insitu A-20 an ideal tool for scientists that need information from areas that are often difficult or dangerous to get to.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—It's hard to conduct experiments on something you can't reach. When it comes to research on the aurora, scientists have worked their way around this problem by taking the experiment to the aurora, using rockets that fly more than 100 miles above Earth.
First rocket experiment of 2009 launches from Poker Flat Research Range
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—University of Alaska Fairbanks students watched eagerly as their rocket project launched successfully from Poker Flat Research Range on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009. The Ionospheric Science and Inertial Sensing project, called ISIS for short, launched at 2:17 p.m. Alaska
Standard Time and flew as designed to the D-region of the ionosphere. A NASA sounding rocket carried the experiment to an altitude of nearly 61 vertical miles.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—A total of eight National Aeronautics and Space Administration sounding rockets will launch from Poker Flat Research Range in 2009. The rocket season is split into two launch windows. The first launch window opens Jan. 10, and will remain open until Feb. 5, 2009.
In a series of three flights through restricted airspace in Puget Sound, WA, the University of Alaska’s unmanned aircraft system proved its value to science once again.
The unmanned aircraft system, or UAS for short, was launched off the top deck of the Oscar Dyson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship, Oct 15-16, 2008. The UAS demonstrated to scientists that i
Denise Thorsen named director-elect of ASGP
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Electrical engineer Denise Thorsen has been selected as director-elect of the Alaska Space Grant Program.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Electrical engineer Denise Thorsen has been selected as director-elect of the Alaska Space Grant Program.
