FURST

Mission Overview

FURST (Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket SpecTrometer) is an experimental sounding rocket instrument that will provide a solar-stellar "missing link", to enable unique insights into the heating of the Sun's chromosphere and corona, with more general implications for understanding signatures of magnetic reconnection and other magnetic processes in the Universe.

We will deliver a fully calibrated UV spectrum to the community at the earliest opportunity, to enable collaborations across heliophysics, astrophysics and aeronomy of planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres. Our initial science interest is to understand better the processes of chromospheric and coronal heating, by focusing upon sometimes subtle, yet significant differences in high quality ultraviolet spectra of the Sun and the stars.

Launch

FURST was launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on September 3, 2024. The flight was successful and nearly everything operated as expected. Alas, a stray light leak in the instrument caused the detector to be saturated for almost the enitre data collection portion of the flight. 

A news release has been published by MSU that goes into detail on the FURST mission.

FURST team left to right: Roy Smart, Cappy Bunn, Charles Kankelborg, Suman Panda, Jake Davis

Launch Video

Our thanks go to the team at White Sands Missile Range for kindly releasing a recording of the FURST launch.

Status

In the fall of 2025 FURST was approved for reflight with a tentative launch date in the spring of 2027. SSEL and the scientists are hard at work implementing and verifying modifications to aleviate the stray light leak that plagued FURST during its first launch.