Omelek Island

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This article contains information regarding a launch site that is scheduled to support a launch in the next 14 days.

Details may change as the countdown and ascent progress. Launch details: SpaceX will use a Falcon 1 to launch Trailblazer and two CubeSats for the American Air Force and MDA, and for Malaysia's ATSB. Launch will occur from Omelek Island at Kwajalein Atoll. A Celestis Space burial payload, Explorers, including the remains of astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan is also being flown. If the launch is successful, it will be the first privately funded liquid-fuelled rocket to reach low Earth orbit.

Launch is scheduled for 23 June 2008 at 23:00 UTC. See 2008 in spaceflight and the Spaceflight Portal for further details.

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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 (along with ten other islands in the atoll) and is part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.

The Island is located at 9°2.890′N 167°44.585′ECoordinates: 9°2.890′N 167°44.585′E and is about 32,000 square meters (8 acres) in size. Geologically, it is composed of reef-rock, as are the other islands in the atoll, which is created by the accumulation of marine organism remnants (corals, mollusks, etc.)

Omelek has long been used by the United States for small research rocket launches due to its relative isolation in the South Pacific. The last U.S. government rocket launch occurred in 1996. More recently, the island's equatorial proximity and nearby radar tracking infrastructure has attracted SpaceX, an orbital launch provider, which updated facilities on the island and established it as their primary launch location. From 2006 onwards, SpaceX have launched Falcon 1 rockets from Omelek.

The Reagan Test Site, which includes rocket launch sites on other islands in the Kwajalein Atoll, on Wake Island, and at Aur Atoll, is the only U.S. government equatorial launch facility.