Press Releases
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.
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
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Electrical engineer Denise Thorsen has been selected as director-elect of the Alaska Space Grant Program.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska— The BEAR is awake. The Alaska Space Grant Program’s Balloon Experiment And Research Program, or BEAR, has launched its first balloon from Poker Flat Research Range. The launch marked the culmination of more than five months of work by researchers with Space Grant and the Arctic Amateur Radio Club, which formed the program in December.
Whether it’s monitoring the migration of marine mammals in the Beaufort Sea, or mapping summer wildfires that flare up in Alaska’s Interior, opportunities abound for unmanned aircraft in the Arctic. An ideal tool for many projects, unmanned aircraft systems can fly as long as 40 hours at a time, often in less than ideal conditions. Stakeholders from a variety of agencies, universities and associations will converge in Fairbanks Oct. 16-17, 2007 to discuss UAS technology, potential projects, and methods for collaboration at the Arctic Unmanned Aircraft Stakeholders Meeting at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge.
