Recap of the GI 2026 sounding rocket season

The GI's participation in sounding rockets was quite busy for the early 2026 season. There were three missions that launched from Poker Flat, two of which were supported by the GI. There was also a rocket launched from Wake Island in the Pacific (19 N, 167 E - yes East), which also involved support from the GI.
All of the rockets launched within a four day period, with three launching within 24 hours!

The first launch was a repeat of the Polar NOx mission, with Scott Bailey from Virginia Tech as PI. This mission uses absorption spectra of a specific star to examine the density of NOx in the upper atmosphere

The second launch was the Black And Diffuse Aurora System Science (BADASS) mission, with Marilia Samara from GSFC as PI. This mission sought to fly through black aurora (lack of aurora surrounded by diffuse aurora) with a comprehensive set of in-situ instruments.

The third and fourth launches were from the Geophysical Non-Equilibrium Ionospheric System Science (GNEISS) mission, with Kristina Lynch from Dartmouth College as PI. The goal was to examine how currents are arranged around mesoscale auroral structures (arcs) and how this affects Magnetospheric-Ionospheric-Thermospheric (MIT) coupling.

The final launch was from the SMART mission, with Guru Ganguli from the Naval Research Laboratory as PI. This was a Ba shaped charge release meant to create plasma waves by driving a high density plasma perpendicular to the local magnetic field.

I'll give a more detailed description of each mission and show what initial results are available. This is a chance to hear how a variety of science questions can be approached by using sounding rockets, and some of the measurements techniques that are used address those questions.