GI Press Releases
Students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are collaborating with students from Toyama Prefectural University and Tokai University in Japan to prepare a rocket scheduled to launch from Poker Flat Research Range on March 11. The launch was originally scheduled for March 4, but was delayed to allow time for the students to fine tune their payload equipment. 
Students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are collaborating with students from Toyama Prefectural University and Tokai University in Japan to prepare a rocket scheduled to launch from Poker Flat Research Range on March 4th.
After waiting more than six weeks for the optimal weather and auroral conditions to occur, scientists successfully launched four rockets within six minutes from Poker Flat Research Range early Thursday morning.ar
Four rockets are scheduled to launch from Poker Flat when aurora conditions are suitable at night or in early morning hours this February.
Three of the rockets will release brilliant blue-green chemical trails to trace wind in the upper atmosphere. The trails are expected to be visible from Fairbanks, North Pole, locations north of the Brooks Range and as far east as the Canadian border.
A single sounding rocket is scheduled to launch in January from Poker Flat Research Range when weather and aurora conditions are suitable. The rocket, a Black Brant XII, is part of an experiment designed to show how the aurora affects radio signals such as Global Positioning System (GPS) signals.
A sub-orbital sounding rocket is scheduled to launch in February from Poker Flat Research Range when the weather is clear and aurora conditions are active. The rocket, a Black Brant XII, will capture measurements to deduce characteristics about the processes that create the aurora. The project is called the Rocket Auroral Correlator Experiment (RACE).
The total number of rockets launching from Poker Flat Research Range this season has recently been revised from thirteen to eleven. The reduction is due to the cancellation of a guided rocket project previously scheduled for April that will no longer launch from Poker Flat.
A single, four-stage sounding rocket successfully launched into the aurora at 11:23 p.m. on Sunday, January 13 from Poker Flat Research Range. The rocket, a Black Brant XII, is part of an experiment designed to use Global Positioning System (GPS) radio signals to understand how oxygen emitted from the aurora triggers the expansion of the ionosphere into space, resulting in the formation of radiation belts.
Four rockets are scheduled to launch from Poker Flat when aurora conditions are suitable at night or in early morning hours this January.
Eleven rockets are scheduled for launch from Poker Flat Research Range this winter, with projects ranging from four rockets launched in rapid succession to measure wind in the upper atmosphere in January to an internationally collaborative student rocket launch in March.
