The Virginian-Pilot
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WALLOPS ISLAND
A Terrier-Orion suborbital sounding rocket launched at 7:17 a.m. today from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
The launch was visible to residents in the Wallops area and via a NASA webcast, which showed the rocket take off from the launch pad, then soar through the sky, leaving an exhaust trail. By 7:20 a.m., NASA officials had not heard from respective teams tracking the rocket's progress, but a webcast narrator said that the launch appeared to be a success.
About 40 seconds into the launch, the rocket was estimated to be traveling 2,653 mph, according to the webcast.
The rocket carried 11 university experiments that were developed in part with a weeklong workshop on how to build small experiments for launch aboard suborbital rockets, a NASA news release said.
A boat is expected to travel out more than 40 miles from shore later this morning to retrieve the rocket from the water, according to the webcast. The students whose experiments were on board will have them returned for study.
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Maybe
when it falls back to earth it will land in the Gulf and plug the oil leak!
A Great teaching Facility
What a great facility for introducing basic engineering, atmospheric science and rocketry to budding science students. We took our grandchildren to their 65th Anniversary Open House a few weeks ago, and they were transfixed! Hopefully our HR schools participate in the many teaching opportunities NASA offers at Wallops Island --- it's only a couple of hours up the road, and well worth the trip.
Keep meaning to go
But I can't remember the last time I was actually even up on the Eastern Shore, much less that far up.