Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
Encyclopedia
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. It covers about 750000 square miles (1,942,491.1 km²) and includes rocket launch sites at the Kwajalein Atoll (on multiple islands), Wake Island
Wake Island
Wake Island is a coral atoll having a coastline of in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu west to Guam east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior...
, and Aur Atoll
Aur Atoll
Aur Atoll is a coral atoll of 42 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only , but it encloses a lagoon with an area of...
. It primarily functions as a test facility for U.S. missile defense and space research programs. The Reagan Test Site is under the command of the US Army Kwajalein Atoll, or USAKA.
The mission control center, along with most of the personnel and infrastructure, is located at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
. Eleven of the atoll's islands are operated by the U.S. military under a long term lease with the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Equipment installed at the test site includes various tracking radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
s, stationary and mobile telemetry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
, optical recording equipment and a secure fiberoptic data network via the HANTRU-1
HANTRU-1
HANTRU-1 is a submarine communications cable system that connects the Reagan Test Site in the Kwajalein atoll to Guam. The cable was funded by $100 million from the US Army. Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia arranged to add extensions to this trunk line for total of $30 million...
undersea cable
Submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean....
. The Reagan Test Site also serves as a tracking station for manned space flight
Human spaceflight
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....
and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
research projects.
Launch activities at the test site include ballistic missile
Ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
tests, ABM
Anti-ballistic missile
An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles .A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajectory. The term "anti-ballistic missile" describes any antimissile system designed to counter...
interception tests, meteorological sounding rockets and a commercial spaceport
Spaceport
A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...
for SpaceX
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or more popularly and informally known as SpaceX, is an American space transport company that operates out of Hawthorne, California...
at Omelek Island
Omelek Island
Omelek Island is part of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It is controlled by the United States military under a long-term lease and is part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.-Geography:The Island is about in size...
.
Previous names for the installation:
- Naval Station Kwajalein (Post WWII–1959)
- Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kwajalein (1959–1964)
- Kwajalein Test Site (1964–1968)
- Kwajalein Missile Range (1968–1986)
- United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (1986–1991)
- Kwajalein Missile Range (1991–1999)
- Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (1999–present)