WALLOPS — Early risers on Wednesday could be treated to a rare scene in the skies over the resort area and across the Lower Shore as a rocket launched from the Wallops Flight Facility will create luminescent multi-colored clouds.
NASA is scheduled to launch a two-stage Terrier-Improved Malamute rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast just south of Ocean City and Assateague sometime between 4:25 a.m. and 4:42 a.m. on Wednesday. The rocket will be testing a new system that supports scientific studies of the ionosphere and aurora.
As a result, the Terrier rocket will launch 10 canisters, each about the size of a soda can, that will produce blue-green and red vapor which will create artificial clouds. The clouds, or vapor tracers, will allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space. The canisters are expected to be deployed between four and six minutes after the rocket launch.
The development of the multi-canister or ampule ejection system will allow scientists to gather information over a much larger area then previously allowed when deploying the vapor just from the main payload. As a result, the artificial clouds created during the test will be visible, weather permitting, from as far south as North Carolina and as far north as New York with Ocean City and the resort area having a front-row seat for the spectacle.
Again, weather permitting the rocket launch creating the luminescent clouds is set for early Wednesday morning between 4:25 a.m. and 4:42 a.m. Back-up dates are set from June 1 to June 6.
