Poker Flat Research Range
The Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) is a launch facility and rocket range for sounding rockets in the U.S. state of Alaska. The world's largest land-based rocket range, it is on a 5,132-acre (20.77 km2) site about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Fairbanks. More than 1,700 launches have been conducted at the range to study the Earth's atmosphere and the interaction between the atmosphere and the space environment. Areas studied at PFRR include the aurora, plasma physics, the ozone layer, solar proton events, Earth's magnetic field, and ultraviolet radiation.
PFRR is owned by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Geophysical Institute, which operates it under contract to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Other users include the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Air Force Geophysics Lab (AFGL), and various universities and research laboratories. Since its founding in 1948, PFRR has been closely aligned with and funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and its predecessor, the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA).
The University of Alaska had performed auroral research since the 1920s, and when sounding rockets were developed for this purpose, the university decided to build a range for them. The UAF Geophysical Institute leased the land that became the PFRR from the state of Alaska, and the range's facilities were initially completed in 1948 with leadership and vision from T. Neil Davis. PFRR's first supervisor, Neal Brown, directed the facility from 1948 to 1965. In the 1990s, new facilities were built with a $30 million grant provided by Congress. Refurbishment of older facilities is an ongoing project.
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