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Code 810: Sounding Rockets Program Office

Code 810: Sounding Rockets Program Office

Black Brant XI vehicle launchThe Sounding Rocket Program Office (SRPO), located NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, provides suborbital launch vehicles, payload development, and field operations support to NASA and other government agencies. SRPO works closely with the Sounding Rocket User Community to provide launch opportunities facilitating a broad spectrum of science apprlications.

In support of science, SRPO conducts approximately 20 flights annually from launch sites around the world. Operations are conducted from fixed launch sites such as Wallops Test Range (Virginia), Poker Flat Research Range (Alaska), and White Sands Missile Range (New Mexico) as well as sites such as Andoya Rocket Range (Norway) and Esrange (Sweden).

Launch operations are also conducted from mobile sites set up by the Wallops Test Range. Mobile "campaigns" have been conducted from Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and the Kwajalein Atoll. The mobile capability offered by the Wallops Test Range allows scientists to conduct their science "where it occurs".

NEW! Sounding Rocket video (6MB WMV)

NEW! Download Sounding Rockets 2007 Annual Report (2MB PDF)

NEW! Mission Planning Lab simulations available online. (Opens in new window.)

Quarterly Newsletter now available for download:

First Quarter 2008 (pdf document 714 KB)
Second Quarter 2008 (pdf document 983 KB)
Third Quarter 2008 (pdf document 665 KB)

2007 Rocket Report Newsletters

If you wish to receive the Rocket Report Newsletter by email, please send request to
Berit Bland (Berit.H.Bland@nasa.gov).

Department News & Events

Sub-TEC 2 payload on spin/balance table at Wallops41.075 GT SMITH/NASA WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY 7-14-08

41.075 GT Terrier Mk70 Improved-Orion was launched from Wallops Island, VA on July 14, 2008. The Sub-TEC II (Suborbital Technology Experiment Carrier) technology demonstration mission included the NASA/Wallops Beamformer system, KSC Command and Telemetry Processor and Rf Health Node, and multiple NSROC (NASA Sounding Rockets Operations Contract) systems. Read More...

Orion launch30.074 NO EBERSPEAKER/NASA WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY 6-27-08

30.074 NO Orion was launched from Wallops Island, VA on June 27, 2008. The purpose of the mission is to conduct a pilot mission for the RockOn Space Flight Workshop concept. Read More...

 

Black Brant XI launch39.008 DR LECLAIR/MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY 6-26-08

39.008 DR Black Brant XI was launched from Wallops Island, VA on June 26, 2008. The purpose of the mission is to enable new sensor technology and improve mission assurance of sensor flight experiments.

 

36.223 UH MCCAMMON/UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 5-1-08

36.223 UH Black Brant IX was launched from White Sands Missile Range, NM on May 1, 2008. The purpose of the mission is to measure the spectrum of the diffuse x-ray emission from the interstellar medium over the energy range 0.07 to 1keV. Read More...

36.240 UE WOODS/UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 4-14-08

36.240 UE Black Brant IX was launched from White Sands Missile Range, NM on April 14, 2008. The purpose of the mission is to provide under-flight calibration of the Solar EUV Experiment (SEE) aboard the Thermospheric Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) Satellite. Read More...

Bock payload in spin deployment bay.36.226 BOCK INTEGRATION AT WALLOPS 3-27-2008

A new telescope, Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER) from Caltech has been prepared for its maiden flight scheduled for June 2008 from White Sands Missile Range. Read More...

 

 

40.021 UE KINTNER/CORNELL UNIVERSITY 1-18-08

40.021 UE Black Brant XII was launched from Andoya Rocket Range in Norway on January 18, 2008. The purpose of the mission is to investigate ionospheric outflows between 200 km and 1400 km in the polar cusp. Read More...

36.243 UG McCANDLISS/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 1-11-08

36.243 UG Terrier-Black Brant was launched from White Sands Missile Range, NM on January 11, 2008. The purpose of the mission is to image long split spectra of the Orion Nebula. Read More...

Kletzing Black Brant XII launching. Photo by Scott Hesh/NSRPOC.40.018 UE KLETZING/UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 12-10-07

40.018 UE Black Brant XII was launched from Andoya Rocket Range in Norway on December 10, 2007. The experiments, Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE), study the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection by making high-resolution measurements in a near-Earth space plasma environment. 40.018 was the first of two rockets to launch as part of the TRICE mission. Read More...

Kletzing Black Brant XII launching. Photo by Scott Hesh/NSRPOC.40.022 UE KLETZING/UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 12-10-07

40.022 UE Black Brant XII was launched from Andoya Rocket Range in Norway on December 10, 2007. The experiments, Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE), study the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection by making high-resolution measurements in a near-Earth space plasma environment. 40.022 was the second of two rockets to launch as part of the TRICE mission. Read More...

Rockets on rail at the Andoya Rocket Range in NorwayKLETZING 40.018 & 40.022 STAGED AND READY TO LAUNCH

Two payloads, Kletzing 40.018 and 40.022, are staged and ready to launch at Andoya Rocket Range in Norway. The purpose of this mission is to study magnetic reconnection in the polar cusp. Read More...

36.241 GS RABIN/NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER 11-6-07

36.241 GS Black Brant IX was launched from White Sands Missile Range, NM on November 6, 2007. The Extreme Ultraviolet Normal-Incidence Spectrograph (EUNIS) is designed to study the physical properties of the solar corona by simultaneously observing the two spectral ranges of 17-21 nm and 30-37 nm. Read More...

Sounding Rocket launching36.218 UE EARLE/UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS - DALLAS 10-30-07

36.218 UE Black Brant IX was launched from Wallops Flight Facility, VA on October 30, 2007. The purpose of the mission is to investigate Mid-Latitude Ionospheric irregularities associated with terrestrial weather systems.
Read More...

 

Kletzing payload during boom deployment test at WallopsKLETZING 40.018 & 40.022 TESTING AND EVALUATION

Two payloads to study magnetic reconnection in the polar cusp are at Wallops for Testing and Evaluation. The payloads will be launched from Andoya Rocket Range, Norway in December 2007. Read More...



41.055 NP PLAYER/NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER 9-6-07

41.055 NP Terrier Mk70-Improved Orion was launched from Wallops Flight Facility, VA on September 6, 2007. The purpose of the mission is to test and validate an inflatable ballute decelerator concept. Read More...

36.220 UG McCANDLISS/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 8-13-07

36.220 UG Terrier-Black Brant was launched from White Sands Missile Range, NM on August 13, 2007. The purpose of the mission is to image long split spectra of the Trifid Nebula. Read More...

Robertson rocket launch from Norway. Photo by Scott Hesh41.070 UE ROBERTSON/UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 8-6-07

41.070 UE Terrier Mk 12 - Improved Orion was launched from Andoya Rocket Range, Norway on August 6, 2007. The purpose of the MASS missions is to provide in situ measurements of the number, density, and size distribution of the aerosol particles responsible for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) and polar summer mesospheric radar echoes (PMSEs) and measurements of associated electric fields and of electron densities. Read More...

41.069 UE ROBERTSON 8-3-07

41.069 UE Terrier Mk 12 - Improved Orion was launched from Andoya Rocket Range, Norway on August 3, 2007. The purpose of the MASS missions is to provide in situ measurements of the number, density, and size distribution of the aerosol particles responsible for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) and polar summer mesospheric radar echoes (PMSEs) and measurements of associated electric fields and of electron densities. Read More...

12.059 GT COSTELLO/NSROC 6-21-07

12.059 GT Terrier Mk 12 - Improved Orion was launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico on June 21, 2007. The purpose of this mission was to demonstrate and flight qualify the ST5000 Star Tracker and the NSROC Celestial Attitude Control System. Read More...

Robertson payload with booms deployedROBERTSON 41.069 & 41.070 PAYLOADS AT WALLOPS FOR TESTING

Two payloads to study Noctilucent clouds are at Wallops for Testing and Evaluation. The payloads will be launched from Andoya Rocket Range, Norway in August 2007. Read More...

 

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