The Churchill Rocket Research Range is a former rocket launch site located outside Churchill, Manitoba. The facility was used by Canada and the United States beginning in 1954 for sub-orbital launches of sounding rockets to study the upper atmosphere. The site was scientifically beneficial due to lying in the center of a zone containing high aurora activity. Over 3,500 sub-orbital flights were launched from the site. The site is sometimes referred to as Fort Churchill after the nearby former military base (now

Churchill Airport Churchill Airport is located east southeast of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The airport serves the town of Churchill and the surrounding region. Although it is a small domestic airport, it handles a relatively high number of passengers througho ...

) and is connected by an all-weather gravel road to the town of Churchill.

History

Rocket launch Churchill Manitoba circa 1965 07

The complex was first built in 1954 by the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...

's Defence Research Board to study the effects of

auroras An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...

on long distance communications. The programme shut down in 1955, but the site was re-opened and greatly expanded in 1956 as part of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's participation in the International Geophysical Year. Launches for the IGY experiments started in 1957, and the site was closed again in December 1958 when the IGY, which was actually two years long, ended. The site was reopened again in August 1959 by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, in collaboration with the Canadian government, as part of its network of sounding rocket stations. In September 1959 it was used to test

CARDE DRDC Valcartier is a major Canadian military research station at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier, Quebec, one of nine centres making up Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). Originally formed at the end of World War II in 1945 as the Ca ...

's new solid fuel propellant systems with PVT-1, the vehicle that would evolve into the

Black Brant The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after t ...

. However, in late 1960 a fire destroyed many of the facilities. It was announced that the Black Brant test series would be continued with an additional twelve launches at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

's Wallops Flight Facility during 1961-62, while the facilities at Churchill were rebuilt. The US Army ended its involvement at Churchill in June 1970, and the site was taken over by the Canadian

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

to support the Canadian Upper Atmosphere Research Program. The site was used sporadically during the 1970s and 1980s, and was largely deserted by 1985.

SpacePort Canada: 1994-1998

Akjuit Aerospace, a Canadian company founded in 1992, signed a 30-year lease with the Canadian government for the Churchill Rocket Research Range in 1994 with the goal of developing the world's first commercial spaceport. Akjuit assembled a "technical team" of 21 firms led by the American aerospace contractor

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...

to plan the development of the site into SpacePort Canada, including

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

al launch capability. Akjuit planned to launch commercial polar-orbiting payloads using

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n-made Start-1 rockets (so named as they were made of repurposed

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-era SS-25 ICBMs made redundant by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). Churchill's location in the western hemisphere combined with its range-safety for firing northwards made it an ideal location, with the exception of the extremely cold weather which would limit launch seasons. Akjuit's first and only rocket launch took place at 7:10a.m. Central Time on April 28, 1998: a suborbital Black Brant IXB research rocket containing a physics payload for the Canadian Space Agency. Akjuit Aerospace ceased operations in May 1998.

Current uses

Churchill Northern Studies Centre (6355077319)

The site is no longer used for rocket launches and is currently the location of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, a non-profit and multi-disciplinary research facility that is also open for educational tourism.

References

External links

Astronautix
{{authority control 1954 establishments in Manitoba 1998 disestablishments in Manitoba Buildings and structures on the National Historic Sites of Canada register Military research installations of Canada National Historic Sites in Manitoba National Research Council (Canada) Rocket launch sites Space program of Canada Spaceports Closed research facilities of the United States Army Buildings and structures in Churchill, Manitoba Science and technology in Manitoba