Open main menu Home Random Nearby Log in Settings Donate About Wikipedia Disclaimers Search Language Watch Edit version 1.0.2 (change every time you update a partial) Not to be confused with HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program . Project HARP , short for High Altitude Research Project , was a joint venture of the United States Department of Defense and Canada 's Department of National Defence created with the goal of studying ballistics of re-entry vehicles and collecting upper atmospheric data for research. Unlike conventional space launching methods that rely on rockets, HARP instead used very large guns to fire projectiles into the atmosphere at extremely high speeds. [1] [2] HARP 16-inch (410 mm) gun A 16-inch HARP gun operated by the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory (now called ...