Churchill Rocket Research Range
Akjuit Aerospace (1994-1998) | |
Total launches | 3,500 |
---|---|
Launch pad(s) | 4 |
Official name | Churchill Rocket Research Range National Historic Site of Canada |
Designated | 1988 |
The Churchill Rocket Research Range is a Canadian former rocket launch site located 23 kilometres (14 mi)[1] outside Churchill, Manitoba.[2] The facility was used by Canada and the United States beginning in 1954 for sub-orbital launches of sounding rockets to study the upper atmosphere. The site was scientifically beneficial due to lying in the center of a zone containing high aurora activity.[3] Over 3,500 sub-orbital flights were launched from the site.[4]
The site is sometimes referred to as Fort Churchill after the nearby former military base (now Churchill Airport) and is connected by an all-weather gravel road to the town of Churchill.
History
The complex was first built in 1954 by the
The site was reopened again in August 1959 by the
The US Army ended its involvement at Churchill in June 1970, and the site was taken over by the Canadian
SpacePort Canada: 1994-1998
Akjuit's first and only rocket launch took place at 7:10 a.m. Central Time on April 28, 1998: a suborbital Black Brant IXB research rocket containing a physics payload for the Canadian Space Agency.[7]
Akjuit Aerospace ceased operations in May 1998.[5]
Current uses
The site is no longer used for rocket launches and is currently the location of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, a non-profit and multi-disciplinary research facility that is also open for
References
- ^ a b Kives, Bartley (July 26, 2011). "Visitors safe in Churchill's new centre". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
The centre, located at a former rocket range about 23 kilometres east of the town of Churchill, has offered research space to scientists and education programs to travellers since 1976.
- ^ "Churchill Rocket Research Range National Historic Site of Canada". Canadian Register of Historic Places. Parks Canada. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-7748-1959-6.
- ^ CSA - Fort Churchill – a landmark in Canadian space research Archived 2011-07-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Braga, Matthew (September 25, 2014). "Before Mojave There Was A Subarctic Spaceport in Canada". Motherboard. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
- ^ Interfax (January 24, 1998). "Agreement Reached To Launch Satellites From Canada". News. Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on February 8, 2001. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ^ "SpacePort Canada, the world's first privately owned spaceport, launches rocket" (Press release). Winnipeg, Manitoba: Akjuit Aerospace. April 28, 1998. Archived from the original on May 26, 1998. Retrieved December 10, 2017.