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Friday, March 16, 2012

Wallops Launching Five Rockets In Five Minutes Tonight

WALLOPS -- Residents and visitors could see a rare spectacle across the sky late tonight and early tomorrow morning as NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility plans to launch five suborbital rockets within a span of five minutes as part of a jet stream wind study.

With a little cooperation from the weather and a resolution of some minor technical issues, Wallops officials are expected to launch five suborbital rockets within a span of about five minutes late tonight or early tomorrow morning. NASA’s facility in Virginia originally planned the unique launch for late Thursday night or early Friday morning, but the mission was scrubbed after an internal radio frequency interference issue was discovered with one of the rockets.

Wallops officials corrected the issue and rescheduled the launch for tonight or early tomorrow morning with a launch window of 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. If all goes according to plan, the five rockets will launch within a span of about five minutes and each will release a chemical tracer that will form milky, white clouds that will allow scientists and the public to actually see high speed, high altitude winds in space.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No launch until Sunday at the earliest.

Anonymous said...

JOE. Stated by Wallops. "ATREX mission of 5 rockets at Wallops postponed to no earlier than Sunday night, March 18. Poor weather for March 17 again the culprit."

Please correct.

Anonymous said...

not tonight...

Anonymous said...

Earliest attempt will be Sunday due to weather.