Black Brant Rockets at Poker Flat

This Black Brant rocket points to one of the strangest research stations on Earth. North of Fairbanks, in the Chatanika River valley, sits Poker Flat Research Range, the only scientific rocket launching site in the world owned by a university. It belongs to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, working under contract with NASA.

Scientists fire so called sounding rockets like the Black Brant straight up into the aurora, the northern lights. The rockets carry instruments and sometimes release glowing tracer clouds that let researchers study how the aurora stirs and heats the upper atmosphere. A Black Brant nine stands about forty-six feet tall.

The flights last only minutes before the payloads fall back to the tundra, where crews go out and retrieve them. Alaska's far northern skies make it one of the best places anywhere to study space weather up close.