GI Press Releases
June 17, 2011
Scientist analyzes the nucleus of comet Hartley 2
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA— Clear skies and fair weather are the only requirements needed for the third and final sounding rocket to launch from Poker Flat Research Range this year. At midnight on April 27, 2011, a Terrier Black Brant will take off, flying through the upper atmosphere to a peak altitude of more than 183 vertical miles. Scientists from NASA will study the rocket’s performance and test a variety of recovery aids packed into the rocket’s 22.5-foot payload.
February 21, 2011
It’s a long swim: Tracking humpback whales through the North Pacific
February 14, 2011
Surviving the extreme: Scientists find life after volcanic eruption
Fairbanks, Alaska—In early August 2008, Kasatochi Volcano in the Aleutians violently erupted. The green and lush island, formerly the home of hundreds of thousands of seabirds, became a sterile mountain of mud and ash. Scientists thought all life was wiped out on Kasatochi, but researchers found a few unlikely survivors on the island during a visit one year after the eruption.
February 8, 2011
Second rocket launches from Poker Flat Research Range
January 31, 2011
What changes can we expect as permafrost continues to thaw?
Fairbanks, Alaska—For many years now, scientists have been tracking the thaw of permafrost throughout the Arctic. Since permafrost with the highest ice content is usually found closer to the ground surface where our structures are, Alaskans and other Arctic communities face major changes in the future if the degradation continues. Ecosystems, buildings, roads, and pipelines will likely lose their stability as the ground beneath them shifts.
January 28, 2011
Rocket launches from Poker Flat Research Range
Scientists launched a NASA sounding rocket at 1:49 a.m. on the morning of Friday, January 28, 2011, achieving their goal of gathering an image of the Whirlpool Galaxy from a rocket that arced about 150 miles above northern Alaska.
“We were on target,” said Professor Jim Green of the University of Colorado, who led the launch team. “It behaved exactly the way we thought it should.”

