Kwajalein Missile Range
Coordinates: 8 ° 43 '0 " N , 167 ° 44' 0" E
The Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site , better known as the Kwajalein Missile Range or Reagan Test Site , is a missile test station in the Pacific . It amounts to about 750,000 square miles and houses missile launch systems on the Kwajalein Atoll (spread over several islands), the Wake Atoll and the Aur Atoll. Its main role is to conduct missile tests for the US missile defense and space research program.
The control center, like most of the personnel and infrastructure facilities, is located on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands . Eleven islands of the atoll are used by the US military on the basis of a long-term contract with the government of the Marshall Islands.
The material installed on the system includes various radar systems , stationary and mobile telemetry evaluation devices , optical recording devices and a network of fiber optic cables laid under water for data transfer. The station also serves as a ground station for NASA's manned spaceflight and research projects .
Activities at the facility include ballistic missile testing , ABM testing , meteorological testing, and the operation of the private space company SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) on Omelek Island .
Web links
- Official website of the facility. (No longer available online.) In: smdc.army.mil. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018 .