Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska is preparing two sounding rocket missions that will use brief flights above the atmosphere for different kinds of research. DUST III will investigate cosmic dust formation in near-weightless conditions. INFUSE II will observe ultraviolet light from the Dumbbell Nebula. The University of Alaska Fairbanks announced the campaign on October 16, 2026, with launch opportunities planned for October 19–23.
The university’s campaign announcement describes two NASA-funded missions whose predecessors flew from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The campaign brings two different research methods to the same range during one scheduled launch period. Their preparation at Poker Flat demonstrates how a sounding rocket range can support laboratory experiments and astronomical observations alongside auroral research. The announced flights are suborbital, with both payloads assigned to two-stage Black Brant IX rockets.
A sounding rocket carries instruments upward, then returns to Earth without establishing an orbit. Its purpose is to provide access to a particular environment or observing condition for a short interval. NASA’s program overview describes typical time in space of five to 20 minutes. Common launch hardware, limited tracking requirements, and recoverable payloads can reduce the resources required compared with an orbital mission.
Those characteristics suit experiments that can make their measurements quickly. They also allow scientists to modify an instrument between flights and evaluate the changes in space. A short mission can answer a focused question or provide operating experience for equipment intended for later use. New Space Economy’s sounding rocket explanation describes this role between ground testing and longer space missions.
DUST III addresses how atoms and molecules assemble into grains that become part of larger astronomical structures. The program is a NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency collaboration led by planetary scientist Joe Nuth. Its small onboard laboratory examines silicate material, which contains silicon and oxygen. The experiment uses the flight environment to investigate the formation and growth of dust.
The reason for leaving the ground is more specific than simply reaching a high altitude. NASA’s description of the original DUST experiment explains that heating material on Earth creates convection. Gravity-driven movement of the surrounding gas complicates measurements of particle growth. During the payload’s free fall, the experiment can examine the process with much less of that disturbance.
Microgravity does not mean Earth’s gravity has disappeared. The payload and its contents are falling together, producing the near-weightless conditions needed for the measurements. The useful experimental interval begins after powered flight and ends before recovery operations interrupt it. This makes a sounding rocket suitable for a laboratory process that develops over minutes.
Dust properties matter because particles interact with radiation and with other material. Their composition, size, and structure influence how they absorb and scatter light and how they aggregate. Laboratory experiments can isolate conditions that astronomers cannot directly control in a cloud surrounding a star. The resulting measurements help interpret observations and improve physical descriptions of how grains form.
The earlier DUST flights show how repeated missions support that work. NASA’s DUST-2 account describes an unexpected result from the first experiment: grains formed in argon containing 5% oxygen merged differently from those formed in pure argon. The follow-up changed the gas mixture to investigate the process. That is a defined experimental comparison, with composition treated as a variable.
NASA reports that DUST-2 launched on September 8, 2020, and that its payload was recovered with usable data. Recovery allowed the team to examine the material produced during flight. This combination of measurements in space and analysis afterward is part of the program’s experimental method. DUST III continues the research sequence with another flight opportunity.
INFUSE II uses the same class of launch vehicle for remote observation. Led by University of Colorado Boulder researcher Brian Fleming, it will study the Dumbbell Nebula, gas expelled by a dying star. An improved integral field spectrograph will measure far-ultraviolet light from several locations at once. The observations are intended to reveal the gas’s composition, temperature, and motion.
Spectroscopy separates light into wavelengths. Specific emission features provide information about the material that produced them, and changes in their position can reveal motion. Imaging supplies spatial information about where light originates. Combining the two makes it possible to compare physical conditions across an extended source, rather than measuring one narrow portion independently.
NASA’s account of the first INFUSE mission explains this combination of imaging and spectroscopy. That payload observed the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, and launched from White Sands on October 29, 2023. It reached 165.8 miles, collected data, and was recovered. The planned second flight applies the instrument approach to a different kind of stellar remnant.
The two targets represent different processes in stellar evolution. The Cygnus Loop is associated with an exploded massive star. The Dumbbell Nebula surrounds the remaining core of a star that shed its outer layers. Observations of expelled material help scientists examine how stars return matter and energy to their surroundings. INFUSE II’s spatially resolved ultraviolet measurements are directed at that process.
The new campaign also gives instrument developers a flight test. Fleming identifies improved detectors, mirror coatings, and optical design as relevant to future ultraviolet astronomy, including technology work associated with the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. This is a technology-development connection, rather than selection of the sounding rocket instrument as that observatory’s final equipment.
Poker Flat supplies the launch setting for both experiments. The university states that neither mission requires auroral activity or clear skies, distinguishing their scientific requirements from campaigns that must wait for particular auroral conditions. As of October 17, the next step is the planned launch campaign. Its research value will come from combining dust-formation experiments and ultraviolet observations with the opportunity to evaluate the resulting data and refine the instruments for subsequent work.
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