First rocket of 2026 takes flight at Poker Flat

A two-stage NASA sounding rocket shot skyward from Poker Flat Research Range at 4:20 a.m. today as part of a long-running project to learn more about aurora-produced nitric oxide in the upper atmosphere.

Nitric oxide, a gas, can travel to lower atmospheric levels, where it can damage Earth’s protective ozone layer.

The Polar Night Nitric Oxide, or PolarNOx, mission is led by engineering professor Scott Bailey of Virginia Tech. A large Virginia Tech contingent, including students, assisted at the launch site.

This launch was part of a longer PolarNOx project and followed a launch in 2020, when auroral activity was less frequent due to the sun just coming out of the low point of its 11-year cycle. 

Friday’s launch provided measurements during a high point of the cycle.

Data from the launch will give Bailey a profile of the gas density at different altitudes.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located at Mile 30 Steese Highway. UAF, and operates it under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which is part of Goddard Space Flight Center.

Two additional missions scheduled for this season have launch windows of Feb. 7-20.

The Geophysical Non-Equilibrium Ionospheric System Science, or GNEISS, mission consists of two rockets that will launch 30 seconds apart.

 The mission aims to gather information about how disturbances in Earth’s middle and upper ionosphere distort the aurora’s smooth curtains or bands. Data will be compared with data from ground stations at several sites across central and northern Alaska.

Dartmouth College physics and astronomy professor Kristina Lynch is the lead scientist.

The Black and Diffuse Aurora Science Surveyor mission is led by Marilia Samara of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The project focuses on an auroral form known as black aurora.

The mission was on the launchpad at Poker Flat in early 2025, but the necessary aurora conditions didn’t occur.

Black auroras form when streams of auroral particles temporarily thin or shut off in small regions of the upper atmosphere, creating well-defined dark shapes within the broader glow of a diffuse aurora. Diffuse auroras themselves are typically faint and spread over large areas.

Text PFRRLAUNCHES to 866-485-7614 to subscribe to launch updates. Go to the Poker Flat active missions webpage to view live broadcasts.