KEKAHA — The Kaua‘i Test Facility, operated by Sandia National Laboratories, pretends to be the “bad guys” to protect the “good guys.” The facility, which is tucked into a remote corner of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, recently celebrated their
KEKAHA — The Kaua‘i Test Facility, operated by Sandia National Laboratories, pretends to be the “bad guys” to protect the “good guys.”
The facility, which is tucked into a remote corner of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, recently celebrated their 50th anniversary by doing what they do — launching a missile. The facility has launched more than 430 rockets, first to prepare for nuclear readiness, then for research, and now to support missile defense tests.
Their primary mission today is to launch the rockets which missile defense systems try to target and destroy.
“Basically, we mimic the bad guys,” said Reuben Martinez, who recently became the site operations program manager and test director.
But even if their missiles are destined to be blasted out of the air by another missile, they provide valuable information about design development, system engineering, integration and demonstration of advanced technologies, payloads and systems, according to Vincent Salazar, senior manager of Sandia’s Missile & Air Defense Department, in a statement.
“KTF has evolved into a national asset that is having a tremendous impact and provides incredible support for the ever-changing national security missions Sandia Labs is focusing on,” Salazar said.
The facility got its start in 1962 after it was discovered that the then-Soviet Union was conducting full-scale atmospheric tests despite the Nuclear Testing Moratorium that was reached in 1958.
“The United States was caught, frankly, flat-footed,” David Keese, director of Sandia’s Integrated Military Systems Center, said in the Sandia Lab News, recounting the site’s history. “We didn’t have any nuclear device carriers that could launch (rockets) into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, we didn’t have any sampling rockets and we didn’t have a launch facility that could do all that.”
In order to level the field, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission — predecessor to today’s U.S. Department of Energy — established the testing center.
The facility became operational and the U.S. was, once again, ready to resume nuclear testing. Sandia also became a national leader in small-rocket technology development until 1976, when the program ended.
From the 1970s until the 1980s, researchers started conducting science and technology launches for the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Defense.
With the introduction of the Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s by President Ronald Reagan, KTF upgraded its facilities and started its current mission.
Over the years, KTF has upgraded launch pads and added a floor to the top of a service tower allowing for vertical launches of large missiles, along with adding several permanent structures.
In over 50 years, the facility had never had a significant problem — until this year.
In the early morning of Jan. 15, an electrical short caused a fire in the KTF’s Launch Operations Building, which houses computers and other monitoring equipment.
Smoke and fire damaged one of the most sensitive buildings on the campus, recovery was completed in just three months.
And they were able to stay on schedule too, completing a previously scheduled launch in May using the refurbished operations building.
“The recovery from the fire was remarkable,” said Steve Lautenschleger in the Sandia Lab News. “The folks based in Albuquerque and Kaua‘i supported the recovery of the building, as well as preparing for missions.”
During the cleaning process, Lautenschleger said more than 600 pieces of equipment were cataloged and stripped from the affected rooms. Teams then removed smoked-damaged furniture, along with floor and wall coverings before restoring electronic systems and then ensuring everything worked again after a specialized cleaning company scrubbed the insides of computers, dry ice blasted grime from different pieces of equipment and then sanitized everything before it was reinstalled.
Martinez said the KTF program team includes around 100 visitors and staff members, who join 14 local staff who are the site all year providing on-going maintenance against the weather and other conditions.
“About a month ahead of a launch, the program team comes out from Albuquerque,” said Martinez.
All of the infrastructure is in place to allow Sandia employees to run three days of practice countdown runs that include completing more than 500 steps in conjunction with the PMRF and the U.S. Navy to launch just one missile.
Once launched, the KTF receives thousands of pieces of data from the rocket that are then analyzed and used to help flight controllers determine if the rocket is on the correct flight path in order to decide whether to continue the mission.
In the end, Keese said, it is all about the employees.
“You can have the best buildings, radar, telemetry, and missile system in the world,” said Keese during the 50th anniversary celebration, “but if you don’t have the people, then you don’t have much at all.”
For more information, visit KTF’s website: http://www.sandia.gov/locations/kauai_test_facility.html online.
• Laurie Cicotello, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or business@thegardenisland.com
