An aurora rocket project of a Dartmouth college scientist went awry early Sunday morning when one of its engines failed to ignite and the rocket fell back to Earth in the White Mountains.
The Black Brant XII was launched Sunday at 1:37 a.m. from the Poker Flat Research Range, 30 miles north of Fairbanks. According to Dr. Kristina Lynch, a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College, as well as range staff and NASA personnel, the first two of four stages of the rocket appeared to function properly, propelling it 18 vertical miles during its five minutes of flight. But normal ignition did not occur during the third stage, causing the rocket to crash.
While the malfunction was unfortunate, it does not pose a threat to the area around the range.
"Even though what happened isn't good news, they are definitely following protocol," said Geophysical Institute information officer Amy Hartley. The range is operated by the institute.
Range staff used snowmachines and a small, fixed-wing aircraft Sunday to look for rocket debris around the impact site. Range manager Greg Walker said he couldn't disclose the exact location of the impact site, only to say it was between the range and the Yukon River. He said the flash of the impact could be seen by range staff. He also received a report that an air ambulance on its final approach into Fairbanks International Airport around the time of the launch saw a flash that likely was the impact.
The rocket does not have a guiding mechanism to direct it once it is launched, Hartley said, comparing it to a bow-and-arrow effect. But staff is able to pinpoint the trajectory of the rocket through calculations and wind speed at the time of launch.
"If there is even the slightest chance the rocket will land in an area it's not supposed to, then we won't even launch," Hartley said.
The CASCADES research project, funded by a NASA grant, is designed to study the structure and motion of auroral activity. The rocket carried payload instruments developed by Lynch and her colleagues. A little more than seven minutes after takeoff, the rocket was supposed to reach 500 miles into space and begin falling back to Earth. Instruments were to collect data and send it back to the research staff by radio during the descent through the aurora. The rocket had a main payload and four subpayloads that included identical wire-boom electric field subpayloads and two free-flying particle detector subpayloads, both with GPS positioning and timing.
"It was a unique experiment," a dejected Lynch said Sunday from the range.
Lynch said the debris will be studied to determine the exact cause of the malfunction. The future of the project remains in question.
In a news release, range staff said it is highly unlikely any of the rocket's pyrotechnics or fuel survived the explosion at impact, but that debris should be considered hazardous.
Normally, rocket debris falls far north of the range, on the ice shield. But according to range staff, the malfunction caused this rocket to fall downrange. Walker said crews have scoured any public trails near the range that may have been affected by debris.
"We're confident people out in the White Mountains are not going to stumble upon this," he said.
However, if by chance, suspected debris is found, Walker said it is important that people contact the range and not disturb the materials so that they can be used to study the incident.
Even thought the malfunction did not cause any hazardous conditions for the surrounding area, it cast a pall over range and research staff Sunday.
"There's a lot of disappointed people sitting around here," Walker said.
Staff writer Margaret Friedenauer can be reached at 459-7572 or mfriedenauer@newsminer.com .
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