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Arial
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KTF
is a Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) rocket launch range
operated in Hawaii for the Department of Energy (DOE).
Sandia's Strategic Target System (STARS)
and rail-launched sounding rocket missions launch from
KTF. The facilities and personnel support a variety of
sounding rocket missions, including weapons research and
development; operational training, test, and evaluation;
and technology development. To ensure maximum utilization
of the facilities, Sandia conducts launch projects for
other organizations or government agencies on a non-interference
basis, which are cost reimbursable to the DOE.
KTF
provides a high-quality integrated facility for conducting
a wide range of test operations. Personnel conduct
experiments in the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and
space. These experiments support materials research,
components development, advanced reentry vehicle technologies,
water entry and recovery systems, missile defense testing,
and on-board sensor research and development testing.
Resources at KTF are available for assembling, testing,
launching, uplink command, receiving telemetry, and
recovering instrumented rockets, rocket payloads, and
remote air and ship-borne instrumentation platforms.
KTF
is a tenant on the US
Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking
Sands, located on the westernmost extension of the
Hawaiian island of Kauai. This location is ideal for
many US rocket-borne experiments. PMRF provides flight
safety, radar tracking, world time reference, telemetry
reception, communication, and weather data.
Facilities
and Infrastructure
Unique
Features Offered by KTF
- Sandia's
immense technical support infrastructure
- Tropical
latitude provides excellent weather conditions for
preparation and flight activities
- Broad,
unrestricted, and unpopulated ocean impact area
- Ability
to provide multiple and simultaneous launches
- Secure,
climate-controlled assembly areas
- Extensive
Hawaii-wide radio communication system
- Recognition
of all active launch pads as INF Treaty-declared
sites
- Vertical
launch stool with Missile
Service Tower (MST)
- Launch
Operations Building (LOB)
- Central
Computing Facility (CCF)
- Four
assembly buildings
- 1 ME-16
mobile tracking telescope (trailer-mounted
tracking platform with mounts for 117.5 focal-length
telescope and either 70 mm or 35 mm high-speed
cameras) to cover launches. Platforms support a
variety of cameras, video, and infrared instrumentation
- Extensive
array of still and high-speed documentation photometrics
- Main
launch field
- Two
Thiokol 20k Rail Launchers
- Two
Missouri Research Labs 7.5k Rail Launchers
- Kokole
Point Launch Complex with one Missouri Research Labs
7.5k Rail Launcher
Location-Enabled
Operations
- Joint
experiments with launches from Vandenberg Air Force
Base (California) or orbiting objects
- Experiments
on phenomena occurring in the upper atmosphere and
in space over the mid-Pacific
- High-velocity
water impact and underwater trajectory experiments
(PMRF) hydrophone-instrumented underwater range.
Summary
of Capabilities
Launch Operations
Support
- Integrated
prelaunch activities and range support scheduling
- Range
safety support
- Payload
buildup, checkout, and control
- Rocket
motor processing and checkout
- Weather
data collection and analysis
- Classified
and physical security coordination
- Coordination
of offsite instrumentation and activities
- Computer-controlled
countdown to ensure launch readiness
- Receive,
process, and display of real-time trajectory data
- Receive,
process, record, and display of in-flight telemetry
data
- UHF
command transmission system for payload control
- Documentation
photography (stills, video, high-speed film)
- Interrange
and intrarange communication
- Quick-look
data playback
- Magnetic
tape duplication
- Range
photodocumentation development
Further
Details
NTW-FM3
launch
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