The Keweenaw Rocket Range is an isolated launch pad located in the U.S. state of Michigan’s

Keweenaw Peninsula The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of "Copper Country." As o ...

. It was used between 1964 and 1971 for launching rockets for meteorological data collection.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

, along with the University of Michigan, conducted the project under the lead of Harold Allen. The site was one of six similar sites scattered about

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

used to collect measurements of electron density, positive ion composition and distribution, energetic electron precipitation, solar

X-rays An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 Picometre, picometers to 10 Nanometre, nanometers, corresponding to frequency, ...

, and

Lyman alpha The Lyman-alpha line, typically denoted by Ly-α, is a spectral line of hydrogen (or, more generally, of any one-electron atom) in the Lyman series. It is emitted when the atomic electron transitions from an ''n'' = 2 orbital to the gro ...

flux. One of the other well-known sites was Wallops Island, Virginia. The collected data was later to be compared to the five other sites.

Smaller rockets

In the early stages of the project, smaller rockets were launched off a floating buoy between the on-land rocket site and Manitou Island, about off shore. These smaller rockets were commonly known as

Mighty Mouse rocket The Mk 4 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket (FFAR), also known as "Mighty Mouse", was an unguided rocket used by United States military aircraft. It was 2.75 inches (70 mm) in diameter. Designed as an air-to-air weapon for interceptor aircraft to ...

s for they were only a few feet tall and had folding fins. There were approximately 50 of these rockets launched from the floating buoy.

Larger rockets

There were two types of larger rockets launched from the site,

Arcas In Greek mythology, Arcas (; Ancient Greek: Ἀρκάς) was a hunter who became king of Arcadia. He was remembered for having taught people the arts of weaving and baking bread and for spreading agriculture to Arcadia. Family Arcas was the so ...

at about six feet and the much larger Nike Apache rockets. Both of these rockets were two-stage rockets that could carry a substantial payload. The Nike Apache rockets weighed about , were over tall and reached an altitude of almost .

Project WEBROC

In 1965 the Keweenaw site was utilized for a project called WEBROC. The goal of project WEBROC was to be able to set up a system of buoys, containing rocket launchers, in the ocean to obtain weather information. The small rockets would contain payloads of various instrumentations. The rockets that were used on the buoy were small 2.75-inch folding-fin rockets called “Mighty Mouse.” The rockets were to be housed in an enclosed launcher to help protect them from the elements. This being the case developers needed to know if the rockets could be launched from a closed-breech launcher. This was the testing that was done at the Keweenaw Rocket Launch Site.

Location

The site is accessible to visitors with the time and patience to get there. Little remains other than a memorial marker and a concrete pad with an iron rail in an arc shape attached to it that is inscribed with degree markings. The view of Lake Superior and Manitou Island is spectacular from the site. The coordinates of the site are . To get to the site, interested visitors must drive north on US 41 up to

Copper Harbor Copper Harbor is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in Keweenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Grant Township. The population of the CDP was 136 as of the 2020 census. The community ...

and proceed about to the end of US 41. From there, visitors can follow a seasonal road about to an ATV trail that leads to the site. The project was originally proposed by the University of Michigan’s Institute of Science and Technology. The rocket launchings were to be part of the

Meteorological Rocket Network Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

and the main goal of the project was to gather inland weather data. Three University of Michigan professors along with two

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...

professors and two employees from the White Sands missile range were the minimum crew for the missile range.

References

External links

University of Michigan Report on the Keweenaw Research Range (PDF), Nov 1964

The Keweenaw Rocket Range 1962-1971
{{coord, 47, 25, 48, N, 87, 43, 01, W, display=title Rocket launch sites in the United States Buildings and structures in Keweenaw County, Michigan University of Michigan 1964 establishments in Michigan