The Keweenaw Rocket Range is an isolated launch pad located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

of Michigan’s

Keweenaw Peninsula The Keweenaw Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Part of the greater landmass of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula, the Keweenaw Peninsula projects about northeasterly into Lake Superior, forming Keweena ...

. It was used between 1964 and 1971 for launching rockets for meteorological data collection.

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, along with the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, conducted the project under the lead of Harold Allen. The site was one of six similar sites scattered about

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used to collect measurements of

electron density Electron density or electronic density is the measure of the probability of an electron being present at an infinitesimal element of space surrounding any given point. It is a scalar quantity depending upon three spatial variables and is typical ...

, positive ion composition and distribution, energetic

electron precipitation Electron precipitation (also called energetic electron precipitation or EEP) is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs when previously trapped electrons enter the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere, thus creating communications interferences and ...

, solar

X-rays An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

, and

Lyman alpha Lyman-alpha, typically denoted by Ly-α or Lyα, is a spectral line of hydrogen (or, more generally, of any one-electron atom) in the Lyman series. It is emitted when the atomic electron transitions from an ''n'' = 2 orbital to the gro ...

flux. One of the other well-known sites was

Wallops Island Wallops Island is a island in Accomack County, Virginia, part of the Virginia Barrier Islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States. It is just south of Chincoteague Island, a popular tourist destination. Wallops Isla ...

, Virginia. The collected data was later to be compared to the five other sites.

Smaller rockets

In the early stages of the project, smaller rockets were launched off a floating buoy between the on-land rocket site and Manitou Island, about off shore. These smaller rockets were commonly known as

Mighty Mouse rocket Mighty may refer to: Businesses *Mighty Audio, an American company known for its product ''Mighty'', a portable audio player *Mighty Animation, an animation studio based in Guadalajara, Mexico Films *''The Mighty'', a 1998 comedy–drama * ''The ...

s for they were only a few feet tall and had folding fins. There were approximately 50 of these rockets launched from the floating buoy.

Larger rockets

There were two types of larger rockets launched from the site,

Arcas In Greek mythology, Arcas (; Ancient Greek: Ἀρκάς) was a hunter who became king of Arcadia. He was remembered for having taught people the arts of weaving and baking bread and for spreading agriculture to Arcadia. Family Arcas was the ...

at about six feet and the much larger

Nike Apache The Nike Apache, also known as Argo B-13, was a two-stage sounding rocket developed by Aerolab, later Atlantic Research, for use by the United States Air Force and NASA. It became the standard NASA sounding rocket and was launched over 600 times ...

rockets. Both of these rockets were two-stage rockets that could carry a substantial payload. The Nike Apache rockets weighed about , were over tall and reached an altitude of almost .

Project WEBROC

In 1965 the Keweenaw site was utilized for a project called WEBROC. The goal of project WEBROC was to be able to set up a system of buoys, containing rocket launchers, in the ocean to obtain weather information. The small rockets would contain payloads of various instrumentations. The rockets that were used on the buoy were small 2.75-inch folding-fin rockets called “Mighty Mouse.” The rockets were to be housed in an enclosed launcher to help protect them from the elements. This being the case developers needed to know if the rockets could be launched from a closed-breech launcher. This was the testing that was done at the Keweenaw Rocket Launch Site.

Location

The site is accessible to visitors with the time and patience to get there. Little remains other than a memorial marker and a concrete pad with an iron rail in an arc shape attached to it that is inscribed with degree markings. The view of Lake Superior and Manitou Island is spectacular from the site. The coordinates of the site are . To get to the site, interested visitors must drive north on

US 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part i ...

up to

Copper Harbor Copper Harbor is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in Keweenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Grant Township. The population of the CDP was 136 as of the 2020 census. The communit ...

and proceed about to the end of US 41. From there, visitors can follow a seasonal road about to an ATV trail that leads to the site. The project was originally proposed by the University of Michigan’s Institute of Science and Technology. The rocket launchings were to be part of the Meteorological Rocket Network and the main goal of the project was to gather inland weather data. Three University of Michigan professors along with two

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Uppe ...

professors and two employees from the White Sands missile range were the minimum crew for the missile range.

References

External links

University of Michigan Report on the Keweenaw Research Range (PDF), Nov 1964

The Keweenaw Rocket Range 1962-1971
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