Friday, May 15–Wallops Launch Reset For Monday

BERLIN – After being scrubbed several times last week due to a variety of factors, a major rocket launch at the Wallops Flight Facility has been rescheduled for early next week and could treat area residents and visitors to a rare fireworks display in the southern sky on Monday.

The countdown started anew this week for the launch of an Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket now set to go up around sundown on Monday. The mission, one of the larger at the facility near Chincoteague, was slated for last Tuesday, but persistent bad weather forced NASA to abort the launch and reschedule for next week.

The Minotaur 1 rocket, carrying an Air Force Research Laboratory Tactical Satellite 3, or Tac-Sat 3, and two secondary payloads is expected to be launched sometime around dusk on Monday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in nearby coastal Virginia. The new launch window is from 7:35 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19, with a back-up date with the same times set for Tuesday.

It will be the third Minotaur rocket launched from Wallops in the last two years.