The Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) is a launch facility and rocket range for sounding rockets in the U.S. state of Alaska, owned and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Geophysical Institute since 1968. The world's largest land-based rocket range, it is situated on a 5,132-acre (20.77 km2) site located approximately 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Fairbanks and is operated under contract to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Since its inception PFRR has been closely aligned and funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and its predecessor, the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA). Other range users include the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Air Force Geophysics Lab (AFGL) and a number of Universities and research laboratories. More than 1,700 launches have been conducted at the range to study the Earth's atmosphere and the interaction between the atmosphere and the space environment . Areas studied at PFRR include the aurora, plasma physics, the ozone layer, solar proton events, Earth's magnetic field, and ultraviolet radiation.
Read more about Poker Flat Research Range: History, Facilities, Sounding Rockets
Famous quotes containing the words poker, flat, research and/or range:
“The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“The allurement that women hold out to men is precisely the allurement that Cape Hatteras holds out to sailors: they are enormously dangerous and hence enormously fascinating. To the average man, doomed to some banal drudgery all his life long, they offer the only grand hazard that he ever encounters. Take them away, and his existence would be as flat and secure as that of a moo-cow.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Men talk, but rarely about anything personal. Recent research on friendship ... has shown that male relationships are based on shared activities: men tend to do things together rather than simply be together.... Female friendships, particularly close friendships, are usually based on self-disclosure, or on talking about intimate aspects of their lives.”
—Bettina Arndt (20th century)
“but we wish the river had another shore,
some further range of delectable mountains,”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)