Omelek Island (; Marshallese: , pronounced ) is part of the

Kwajalein Atoll Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civilia ...

in the

Republic of the Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

. It is controlled by the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

under a long-term lease (along with ten other islands in the

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

) and is part of the

Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site The Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, commonly referred to as the Reagan Test Site (formerly Kwajalein Missile Range), is a missile test range in Marshall Islands (Pacific Ocean). It covers about and includes rocket launch s ...

Geography

The Island is about in size. Geologically, it is composed of reef-rock, as are the other islands in the atoll, which is created by the accumulation of marine organism remnants (

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

Mollusca Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

, etc.)

Rocket launches

Omelek has long been used by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

for small research

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

launches due to its relative isolation in the South Pacific. The last U.S. government rocket launch occurred in 1996. After 2000, the island's

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

ial proximity and nearby radar tracking infrastructure attracted

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

, an orbital launch provider, which updated facilities on the island and established it as their primary launch location by 2006. SpaceX began launching

Falcon 1 Falcon 1 was a small-lift launch vehicle that was operated from 2006 to 2009 by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. On 28 September 2008, Falcon 1 became the first privately-developed fully liquid-fueled launch vehicle to go into orbit ...

launch vehicles from Omelek in 2006. Falcon 1 Flight 4, the first successful privately funded, liquid-propelled orbital

, was launched from Omelek Island on 28 September 2008 and was followed by another Falcon 1 launch on 13 July 2009, placing

RazakSAT RazakSAT is a Malaysian Earth observation satellite carrying a high-resolution camera. It was launched into low Earth orbit on 14 July 2009. It was placed into a near-equatorial orbit that presents many imaging opportunities for the equatorial re ...

into orbit. This 2009 flight was the last flight of Falcon 1, and it also became the last flight of SpaceX from Omelek. In total, SpaceX launched 5 rockets (all Falcon 1s) from Omelek between 2006 and 2009, with two successes (28 September 2008, 14 July 2009) and three (24 March 2006, 21 March 2007, 3 August 2008) failures. Omelek was planned to host launches for the upgraded

Falcon 1e SpaceX manufactures launch vehicles to operate its launch provider services and to execute its various exploration goals. SpaceX currently manufactures and operates the Falcon 9 Full Thrust family of medium-lift launch vehicles and the Falcon ...

rocket, but in 2011-2012, SpaceX stopped development on the Falcon 1e launches while it focused on its large Falcon 9 launch manifest. SpaceX had tentatively planned to upgrade the launch site for use by the

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

launch vehicle. , the SpaceX launch manifest listed Omelek (Kwajalein) as a potential site for several Falcon 9 launches, the first in 2012, and the Falcon 9 Overview document offered Kwajalein as a launch option. In any event, SpaceX did not make the upgrades necessary to support Falcon 9 launches from the atoll and did not launch Falcon 9 from Omelek. The Site has since been abandoned by SpaceX. Launches from Omelek will resume in 2022 with space startup Astra. The Reagan Test Site, which includes rocket launch sites on other islands in the Kwajalein Atoll, on

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of To ...

, and at

Aur Atoll Aur Atoll ( Marshallese: , ) is a coral atoll of 42 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only , but it encloses a lagoon with an area of . It is located ...

, is the only U.S. government equatorial launch facility.

References

External links

Environmental assessment and overview of SpaceX's launch facilities at Omelek
{{authority control Kwajalein Atoll Rocket launch sites SpaceX facilities Islands of the Marshall Islands