International Launch Site Guide

Second Edition

Steven R. Strom

The Aerospace Press • El Segundo, California

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. • Reston, Virginia

v

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

1 Australia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Woomera Rocket Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

2 Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Alcântara Launch Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11Barreira do Inferno Sounding Rocket Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Churchill Rocket & Research Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

4 China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Xichang Satellite Launch Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

5 France and French Guiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Guiana Space Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

6 India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Satish Dhawan Space Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

7 Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Palmachim Launch Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

8 Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Uchinoura Space Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60Tanegashima Space Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

9 Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Andøya Rocket Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

10 Pakistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

SUPARCO Flight Test Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Contents

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11 Russia and Kazakhstan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

Plesetsk Cosmodrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Baikonur Cosmodrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

12 Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Esrange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

13 United States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Eastern Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Western Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Wallops Flight Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

14 A Multinational Site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139

Sea Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Appendix I: Proposed Commercial U.S. Spaceports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Appendix II: Points of Contact Quick Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

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Early photo of the Western Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

ix

Introduction

Since its founding in 1960, The Aerospace Corporation has been involved in manyaspects of the U.S. space program, in both the military and civilian sectors. Aero-space was created as a nonprofit corporation to provide technical assistance to theDepartment of Defense for space activities associated with national security. Thecompany’s work and research for many of the nation’s principal launch vehiclesled to a corollary involvement with U.S. launch sites, a relationship that extends tothe present. Throughout the past forty-five years, the company has been a continu-ous participant in numerous activities at both the Western Test Range (VandenbergAir Force Base in California) and the Eastern Test Range (Cape Canaveral AirForce Station in Florida). Recently Aerospace has also provided assistance andtechnical expertise to a number of international agencies. So it is from a logicaloutgrowth of corporate interest and relationships that The Aerospace Press, thecorporation’s publishing arm, now introduces the second edition of the

Interna-tional Launch Site Guide

. The Aerospace Corporation began operations by assisting the Air Force with

general systems engineering and technical direction (GSE/TD) for the launchvehicles used in two of the most historically important crewed U.S. space pro-grams, Project Mercury and the Gemini program, during the formative years ofspace exploration. For both of these programs, Aerospace developed and imple-mented a Pilot Safety Program and a system of man-rating the Atlas and Titanrockets that were used as launch vehicles, thus guaranteeing the astronauts’ safetyand the programs’ ultimate success. Aerospace also devised the Titan Integrate-Transfer-Launch (ITL) system during a period when the company provided GSE/TD for the design of the Titan facilities, the launch equipment, and the ground-systems handling apparatus. During these early years of the space program, Aero-space engineers, working alongside the Army’s Corps of Engineers and NASA,had input in the planning and design of launchpads at Cape Canaveral. Aerospacehelped oversee the construction of the ITL complex at the Cape, which includedlaunch complexes 40 and 41, and the company supplied GSE/TD for the launchesof Titan IIIA’s from Launch Complex 20.

In addition to working with these early NASA programs, Aerospace was concur-rently assisting the Air Force with the development of military crewed space pro-grams. One of the first program offices formed at Aerospace was the Dyna-Soarprogram office, established in the summer of 1960. As with the Mercury and Gem-ini programs, Aerospace provided GSE/TD for the visionary Dyna-Soar program,cancelled in 1963. (The Dyna-Soar would have been the world’s first reusable,orbital space plane. Although it never flew, research for the Dyna-Soar was laterapplied to the space shuttle and other U.S. space systems.) Beginning in the mid-1960s, Aerospace became a vital participant in the Air Force’s Manned OrbitingLaboratory (MOL) program, which eventually became the corporation’s largestprogram office. One of the largest and most complex projects that Aerospace ever

Introduction

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This elevation drawing of a Gemini launch configuration depicts a Gemini capsuleatop a Titan II rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 19. The complex sup-ported 12 Gemini missions (two of them unmanned) during 1964–1966. This engineer-ing drawing was delineated in 1962 for The Aerospace Corporation’s Atlantic MissileRange Office. Launch Complex 19 was declared a national historic landmark in 1984.

Introduction

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assisted with was the construction of Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vanden-berg. SLC-6 was intended as the launchpad for the MOL launch vehicle, the TitanIIIM. Although MOL was cancelled in 1969, the program proved to be an invalu-able testing ground for some important early space concepts and technologies.

Following the cancellation of MOL and the conclusion of the Apollo program,by the early 1970s Aerospace was performing advanced program analysis andstudies for the space shuttle project. Aerospace worked closely with the Air Force,which was developing its own shuttle launch capacities at Vandenberg. Beginningin 1979, some $4 billion was spent to modify the deactivated SLC-6 complex inpreparation for shuttle launches. After the space shuttle successfully flew in 1981,Aerospace opened an office at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to assist the tran-sition of shuttle technology from NASA to the Air Force, although the AerospaceKSC team was not involved in shuttle launch operations.

Following the explosion of the space shuttle

Challenger

in January 1986, the AirForce cancelled its shuttle operations at Vandenberg and reactivated expendablelaunch vehicle production. Once the decision to do this was made, Aerospace per-sonnel provided the Air Force with valuable assistance as a result of their manyyears of experience with heritage launch vehicles, including Atlas and Titan. Whenwork began on Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) in the 1990s, Aero-space became a valuable participant in the development of these new launch vehi-cles. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Aerospace played an importantrole in the first successful launches of both the Atlas V and the Delta IV EELVs.By 2005, the forty-fifth anniversary of Aerospace, the company had been involvedwith virtually every major component of the U.S. space program. It continues toplay a major role in the development and planning of future space systems.

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1

1 Australia

Woomera Rocket Range

• orbital • 31.0 deg south • 136.5 deg east

Overview

The Woomera Rocket Range is one of the world’s largest launch sites. Officiallyknown as the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA), the facility covers some 127,000sq km, which is almost exactly the size of England. Since Woomera’s first missilewas launched in 1949, the range has played an important role in the history ofrocketry. It has been the site of guided weapons testing, space capsule launch andretrieval, sounding rocket tests, satellite launches, and tracking of early spacecraft,including the crewed spacecraft of the American Mercury program.

In broad terms, the establishment of the spaceport in 1947 marked the begin-ning of a joint Australia–United Kingdom agreement to develop and test guidedweapons systems. More specifically, the British needed access to a launch sitewithin the Commonwealth to test-fire the large number of missile systems plannedin the postwar era. Several potential locations were identified, and the vast,sparsely populated, flat terrain of the state of South Australia was selected.

Woomera, an Australian aboriginal word meaning “spear thrower,” refers notonly to the WPA but also to Woomera township, which contains support facilitiesfor the rocket range. The town of Woomera is located in the southeastern corner ofthe WPA, about 500 km northwest of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Amajor facet of the WPA is the primary trials area known as the Woomera Instru-mented Range (WIR), located some 40 km from Woomera township. Availablelaunch vehicle sites for customers are located within the WIR.

During the 1950s and 1960s, as the Cold War between the Soviet Union andthe United States and its Western allies intensified, the WPA acquired an increas-ingly important role in Western defense-related development work. The rangeserved as the launch site for numerous rockets, including Skylark, Black Knight,and Europa. The formation of the European Launcher Development Organization(ELDO) in 1962 was another important factor in the increase of WPA activities,because ELDO member states used the range for a large number of rocket tests forthe remainder of the decade. In 1967, Australia achieved the distinction of launch-ing its own satellite into orbit, using an American Redstone rocket as the launchvehicle. During this period, the population of the town of Woomera roughly dou-bled from approximately 3000 people in 1950 to more than 6000 in the 1960s.Great Britain launched its first satellite, Prospero, from Woomera in 1971, but cut-backs in British defense programs soon reduced the scale of Woomera’s launchactivities, and the British ceased operations there in 1976.

Although rocket testing and launches at the WPA reached a peak in the 1960s,Woomera took on an additional role as support center for the Nurrungar trackingstation, established in 1970 to assist the U.S. Defense Support Program (DSP).The Joint Defense Facility Nurrungar, some 20 km from the town of Woomera,was a joint operation of the Australia Defence Forces and the U.S. Air ForceSpace Command, and its original purpose was to assist the DSP with the detection

2 Australia

Fig. 1.1. Woomera Rocket Range. (

Mark Wade)

–30°50′

–31°0′

–31°10′

–31°20′

LakeHart

136°20′ 136°30′ 136°40′ 136°50′

LA9/LA4

LA6A

LA8

LA5MRL/HAD launchers

50 km

LA2LA3

Woomera

Australia

Indian Ocean

Adelaide

Melbourne

Woomera Rocket Range 3

and tracking of Russian missile launches and nuclear detonations. Operations atNurrungar provided important assistance during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 butsubsequently were gradually phased out and the facility was closed in 1999.

After the 1970s, use of the Woomera range declined, and the last major seriesof launches was a number of Black Brant sounding rockets launched for NASA in1995. Today, the population of the WPA numbers only about 1300 permanent resi-dents. Several recent, highly publicized projects to reactivate the range ultimatelycollapsed, most notably a project proposed by the SpaceLift Australia company toprovide launch services for satellite payloads from Woomera. In March 2005, theKistler Aerospace Corporation announced plans to use the WPA as a launch sitefor its planned K-1 reusable launch vehicle. Kistler intends to attempt its firstlaunch from the WPA in 2007. Australia signed an agreement with Japan in 2001to allow the Japanese National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) to launch a series oftests of NAL-developed, rocket-powered experimental planes. The first test of theplanned supersonic plane ended disastrously when the test model exploded shortlyafter liftoff in July 2002. The Australian Space Council has recently considered theconstruction of new launchpads on the WPA to attract continued use of the range.

Launch Site Description

The WPA is currently administered by the Australian Department of Defence,which allows it to be used for not only military but also approved civil and com-mercial purposes. The Area Administrator Woomera is in charge of the DefenceSupport Centre Woomera (DSCW), which has responsibility for WPA manage-ment and operations.

In addition to its largely flat, featureless, and vast terrain, which allows easieraccess for test object recovery and provides an important safety valve for hazard-ous launch activities, the WPA’s desert climate is another positive feature of therange. Rainfall is rare, which results in few overcast days, and the climate is gen-erally warm and dry, with only a brief, generally mild winter. The area’s stable cli-matic conditions virtually assure the ability to conduct year-round operations,with little downtime resulting from poor weather conditions. An important aspectof the WPA’s remote location is the ability of the range to enforce strict securitywhen required and to limit overflights by air traffic during launch and test activi-ties. The low population density of the WPA is another range attribute.

The Woomera Instrumented Range (WIR), an area of approximately 2000 sqkm, includes the WPA’s launch vehicle facilities. The WIR is under the jurisdic-tion of the Aircraft Research and Development Unit of the Royal Australian AirForce. The Woomera Rangehead is located in the southeast portion of the WIR,and its primary facilities include three launch sites for missiles and sounding rock-ets with launch control facilities, assembly and checkout facilities for flight vehi-cles, an instrumentation building for managing range activities and safety, and ameteorological shed for the release of weather balloons.

Additional Rangehead facilities and specifications include:

4 Australia

• fully prepared and surveyed sites• security protection• rocket motor and explosive ordnance storage facilities• helicopter landing pad and small airfield • optical instrumentation• tracking data system• local WIR communications system• meteorological facilities• large launch vehicle and payload test shop/assembly facilities• hardware recovery facilities

The three operational launch areas currently located within the WIR arereferred to as LA1, LA2, and LA9. LA1, recently refurbished, now contains aJapanese-owned launcher. LA2 has two sounding rocket launchers and has beenthe Rangehead’s principal launch site for many years. LA9 also serves as a sitefor launching sounding rockets.

The WPA also includes the Lake Hart Air Weapons Range (LHAWR) on thenorthern shore of Lake Hart, a dry salt lake. This range is used for the release oflive munitions drops from aircraft and ground-based missile and artillery firings.The LHAWR also contains the former launch areas LA6a and LA6b, originallyconstructed for Blue Streak missile tests. Two large, deep concrete launch pedes-tals remain here and have the potential to be refurbished and made operational forlarge-launch-vehicle programs.

Payload Accommodations and Support Facilities

Payloads and launch vehicles can be transported to Woomera township using air,rail, or road transport. Port facilities are available at Adelaide, which is connectedto Woomera by highway. Transport from Woomera to the launching area (WIR) isby road. Test shop integration and assembly facilities are available at Woomeratownship or the Rangehead.

Only eight km from the town of Woomera, a large airport with a 2375 m run-way is available for use by both civil and military airplanes. It can handle largefreight aircraft, including the Lockheed C-5A and the Boeing 747, and can alsosupport aircraft that specialize in the air launch of space launch vehicles. The air-port also has three large hangars with some 9000 sq m of space.

The town of Woomera offers full facilities and services in support of rangeactivities, including accommodations for personnel utilizing the WPA, recre-ational facilities, medical care, and communications services.

Woomera Rocket Range 5

Fig. 1.2. Launch of the University of Queensland’s HyShot rocket from the WoomeraRange in 2002. (Courtesy University of Queensland)

Acronyms

Points of Contact

Area Administrator WoomeraDefence Support Centre WoomeraDewrang AvenueWoomera, South Australia 5720AustraliaVoice: +61 8 8674 3201

DSCW Defence Support Center Woomera

DSP Defense Support Program (U.S.A.)

ELDO European Launcher Development Organization

LHAWR Lake Hart Air Weapons Range

NAL National Aerospace Laboratory (Japan)

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (U.S.A.)

WIR Woomera Instrumented Range

WPA Woomera Prohibited Area

6 Australia

Fax: +61 8 8674 3308E-mail: aaw@dfence.gov.au

Commander ARDUAircraft Research and Development UnitRAAF Base EdinburghEdinburgh, South Australia 5111AustraliaVoice: +61 8 8393 2111Fax: +61 8 8393 2498 Space Policy Unit Department of Industry, Science and ResourcesP.O. Box 9839Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 260AustraliaVoice: +61 6 213 7246Fax: +61 6 213 7249Telex: AA62654E-mail: egrohovaz@isr.gov.au

References

“Australia in Space,”

AeroSpaceGuide.net

, 2005, <http://www.aerospaceguide.net/worldspace/australia_in_space.html> (17 January 2005).

BAE Systems and Department of Defence (Australia), “Range,”

Woomera South Australia

, <http://www.woomerasa.com.au/PAGE.CFM/DC5AF086-9921-4C67-BAF1-D439657F9BFC> (17 January 2005).

Defence South Australia

, <http://www.defence-sa.com/html/infrastructure/woomera.htm> (17 January 2005)

Flinders Ranges Research

, <http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/woomera.htm> (inactive).

M. King, ed.,

The Lowdown: Australian Space Development in Focus

, <http://www.lowdown.com.au/> (1 March 2005).

P. Morton,

Fire Across the Desert: Woomera and the Anglo-Australian JointProject, 1946–1980

(Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1989).

Woomera Rocket Range 7

M. T. Rigby,

Woomera on the Web

, 2005, <http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/> (17 January 2005).

M. Wade, ed., “Woomera,”

Encyclopedia Astronautica,

2003, <http://www.astronautix.com/sites/woomera.htm> (17 January 2005).