A two-stage NASA sounding rocket shot skyward from Poker Flat Research Range at 4:20 a.m. Friday 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 […]
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and Alaska Aerospace Corp. will work together under a new agreement to jointly develop and offer spaceport services to the booming commercial rocket and satellite industry. The partnership, announced today with a memorandum of understanding, aims to capitalize on the rapidly growing U.S. commercial space industry for suborbital […]
The first two rockets launched from Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks on Tuesday, March 25, with one taking a route similar to Saturday’s rocket and the other flying farther north to eject colorful vapor tracers over the Arctic Ocean above Utqiagvik and Kaktovik. The mission, titled Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic […]
Two NASA sounding rockets launched from Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks early Tuesday morning in a mission aimed at learning more about how the aurora affects the upper atmosphere. The two rockets performed as expected, releasing tracer payloads widely visible across central and northern Alaska. Completion of the study awaits launch of a […]