5 Rockets to Light Up US East Coast Sky Tonight

[dogg57]

03/14/0212 A quintuple rocket launch promises to put on a spectacular, but brief, overnight light show of luminescent vapor trails in the skies above the U.S. East Coast tonight, weather permitting. The sky display may puzzle and amaze some unsuspecting observers, so before you make that phone call to your local news or police, here is why this is happening and when you may see it.
The bright phenomenon will be caused by NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX), which will launch five chemical-bearing suborbital rockets in about five minutes to test the flow of winds and electrical currents at high altitudes. The rockets will blast off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., on the Atlantic coast during a window that opens tonight at midnight EDT (0400 GMT) and closes at 1:30 a.m. EDT Thursday (0530 GMT).
As part of the mission, the five rockets will each release a chemical tracer that should inscribe brilliant milky white trails in the nighttime sky and allow scientists and the general public to actually "see" high-altitude winds at the edge of space, according to a NASA description.

http://www.space.com/14902-nasa-roc...90_20943980_10150586356616090#f3699d4caf0b70c

 

[CurMUDgeon]

It's been postponed so many times now I've lost count! The latest reason is because of a boat down range in the safety zone that would not move or respond to hailings on the radio.
It looks like Sunday the 25th into the morning of the 26th is the next launch window.

 

[dogg57]

Associated Press |
ATLANTIC, Va. — After several delays, NASA launched five rockets from Virginia that are part of a study of the jet stream.
The rockets blasted off just before 5 a.m. Tuesday from NASA's space center on Wallops Island. Bad weather and boat traffic had postponed other planned launches last week.

The Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) will help scientists understand an upper atmosphere jet stream, which is located 60 to 65 miles above Earth's surface. The rockets each released a chemical tracer to form glowing white clouds that allowed scientists and the public to see the winds.
NASA set up cameras near Tuckerton and in North Carolina to record the experiment.
From the beach near Atlantic City, the rockets themselves were visible as orange dots rising quickly in the southern sky, shortly after they were launched from the Wallops Island facility. Wallops Island is near Chincoteague Island, about 110 miles south of Cape May.
The rockets were visible within minutes high in the sky as they each released the chemical tracer, which appeared as whitish streaks. The streaks then gradually became contorted as the near-space winds that NASA was studying moved the chemical around. Shortly after 5 a.m., all five rockets had released the tracer.
This is the first time this type of experiment has been conducted from the Wallops Island facility. NASA said the streaks could be visible from South Carolina to southern Vermont, though the agency said after the launch occurred that it had received spotter reports from Wilmington, NC., Charleston W.VA and Buffalo, NY.
Press Staff Reporter Sarah Watson contributed to this report

 

[c1nj]

I am so glad I stayed up last night. It was an awesome sight! I watched mission control counting down as long as I could on the computer then went out to the marsh. After an hour, I almost gave up then rockets came from the southwest and dispersed the chemical tracers right overhead.