Poker Flat launches two NASA rockets in three days

Poker Flat launches two NASA rockets in three days

Experiments on two rockets that launched into the night from Poker Flat Research Range on Monday and Wednesday will reveal more about how stars influence our galaxy.

A NASA mission to study how cosmic dust from dying stars forms launched from Poker Flat at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. A University of Colorado Boulder mission to learn more about dying stars launched at about 10:30 p.m. Monday.

Both NASA-funded missions were follow-ups to earlier launches from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute ownsPoker Flat Research Range, located at Mile 30 Steese Highway. It is supported by NASA's Sounding Rocket Program Office, which is funded by the agency's Heliophysics Division.

Wednesday's launch of the Determining Unknown yet Significant Traits, or DUST, mission was the third installment in a program studying how atoms and molecules released by dying stars come together to form tiny grains of cosmic dust.

DUST III carried a small laboratory with silicate dust grains to study how they form and grow during the mission's few minutes in a near-weightless environment.

The DUST program is a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Launching at Poker Flat was a first for the DUST program. Joe Nuth, NASA's lead scientist for DUST, praised the personnel at Poker Flat and at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

"The team here was fantastic," he said. "The Wallops and Poker staff worked seamlessly to make sure all went well."

Monday's launch of the Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment, or INFUSE II, mission obtained the first map of far-ultraviolet light of the Dumbbell Nebula. Such light is invisible to the human eye.

The INFUSE program studies how stars release matter and energy during their lives and after they die.

The mission's lead scientist, Brian Fleming of the University of Colorado, said the ultraviolet light-mapping instrument delivered high-quality data. He and his team designed the instrument.

As with the DUST III launch, this was the first INFUSE launch at Poker.

"The INFUSE team is thrilled with their experience at Poker Flat," Fleming said. "The support staff and facilities were excellent and went a long way to making this a memorable and successful campaign."

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Sarah Frazier, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [email protected]

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