Sonmiani flight test range is a rocket launch facility operated by

Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission The Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) ( ur, ) is the executive and national space agency of Pakistan. It is headquartered at the capital city of Islamabad in the northern part of Pakistan with additional facilities at th ...

(SUPARCO) located at Sonmiani,

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

province in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The facility is also used by

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) (Urdu: ) is a federally funded independent governmental agency, concerned with research and development of nuclear power, promotion of nuclear science, energy conservation and the peaceful usage of nuclea ...

and

National Defence Complex National Defence Complex (NDC), ( ur, ) also known as National Development Complex, National Development Centre, is a Pakistani state-owned defence and aerospace contractor which is a division under the National Engineering and Scientific Co ...

for testing solid-fueled ballistic missiles.

History

In the 1990s, the facility was expanded and modernized to include rocket launchers; a rocket assembly and a maintenance workshop; a payload assembly area; high-speed tracking radars with a control room and telemetry station; flight communications equipment and optical cameras. It is currently spread across and located approximately west of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

. The facility has been used to host test flights of multiple missiles, including four tests of Hatf-II, two of Hatf-III, seven of Hatf-IV and five of Hatf-VI. It is also collaboratively used by NASA and SUPARCO as a launch site for

sounding rockets A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...

References

External links

*
Astronautix.com page on Sonmiani
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonmiani (Space Facility) Science and technology in Pakistan Space programme of Pakistan Spaceports SUPARCO facilities 1962 establishments in Pakistan

History

See also

References

External links