Active Mission Live Stream

Congratulations to the team on launching the GNEISS rockets! Watch the YouTube livestream recording below. This concludes the current launch window with PolarNOx, BaDASS, and GNEISS missions all launched successfully.

Most sounding rocket launches occur between January and March. Scientists come from around the world to use the facility for their research projects.

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Future Launch Missions

Learn about our missions for the upcoming launch season

Launch Window OpensFlight NumberNight/DayVehicleAgencyExperimenterExperiment
02/07/202636.390NightBlack Brant 9NASASamaraBaDASS
02/07/202636.397NightBlack Brant 9NASALynchGNEISS
02/07/202636.398NightBlack Brant 9NASALynchGNEISS

Mission Scientists

Meet the scientists who are conducting experiments at Poker Flat

Engineering professor Scott Bailey of Virginia Tech is the lead investigator of the Polar Night Nitric Oxide mission. PolarNOx will launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska to help quantify the amount of aurora-produced nitric oxide in the upper atmosphere. Nitric oxide, NOx, can migrate to lower atmospheric levels, where it can harm Earth’s protective ozone layer. The mission’s launch window opens Jan. 30.
Dartmouth College physics and astronomy professor Kristina Lynch is the lead investigator of the Geophysical Non-Equilibrium Ionospheric System Science mission. GNEISS consists of two rockets that will launch 30 seconds apart from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska to study how disturbances in Earth’s ionosphere distort smooth auroral curtains or bands. The mission’s launch window opens Feb. 7.
The Black and Diffuse Aurora Science Surveyor mission is led by Marilia Samara of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The project focuses on understanding the origin of a little-understood auroral form known as black aurora. Its launch window is Feb. 7-20. The mission was on the launchpad at Poker Flat in early 2025, but the necessary aurora conditions didn’t materialize before the launch window closed.

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