what is poker flat

Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) is the only non-federal, university owned and operated range in the world and the only high-latitude, auroral-zone rocket launching facility in the United States of America. The name Poker Flat was taken from an old Bret Harte rags-to-riches short story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat; the name may have been suggested by the nearby Poker Creek, or perhaps by the way in which the original launch site was constructed from begged and borrowed materials.

Owned and operated by the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute since 1968, the range has been primarily dedicated to the launch of sounding rockets for the purpose of auroral and middle to upper atmospheric research. Range operations are funded through contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the range has been operating under a cooperative agreement between NASA and the Geophysical Institute since 1979.

A small band of university employees work year-round at the facility to maintain the physical plant, to provide launch support, and to obtain the various waivers, approvals and agreements necessary to the operation. Past funding sources include the Defense Nuclear Agency, the U.S. Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The 5,132-acre site located about 30 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, is the world's largest, land-based rocket range and has an established chain of downrange flight and observing facilities from inland Alaska to Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean for monitoring and recovery purposes.

More than 1,500 meteorological missiles and 236 major high-altitude sounding rocket experiments have been launched from the range by scientists and technicians from a variety of federal agencies and from universities throughout the world to conduct atmospheric research, including studies on the aurora, ozone layer, solar protons, the electric and magnetic fields, and ultraviolet radiation.

The Federal Aviation Administration approves requested rocket flight zones and coordinates air space use during rocket launches. Permission to impact rockets and payloads on some 26 million acres of land is authorized by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of Alaska Division of Lands, Doyon, Ltd., and the Village Traditional Councils of Venetie and Arctic Village. The research range launch site is owned by the University of Alaska.