NASA Launches Rocket with Students' Experiments from Virginia Base

NASA launched a rocket carrying students' experiments from its Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia at 5:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday.

Part of the RockON and RockSat-C programs conducted with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia, those involved originated from throughout the country.

All told, the rocket reached an altitude of 73 miles before descending by parachute into the Atlantic Ocean.

The payload has since been recovered and the 100 or so students and instructors were able to receive their experiments later that day in order to start analyzing the collected data right away.

The first of a series, the next launch is scheduled to take place on June 24, at which point two rockets will launch mere 15 seconds apart in support of the Daytime Dynamo experiment, a joint project between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

The project is designed to study a global electrical current called the dynamo, which sweeps through the ionosphere. The ionosphere is located between 30 and 600 miles above the Earth and plays a key role in the day-to-day life of individuals throughout the globe. Radio waves, for example, bounce off it as they travel from sender to receiver. Communication satellites travel through it as well and in either case, a disruption of the ionosphere can mean a disruption in these signals.

Of those two rockets, the one to be launched first is a single-stage Black Brant V, capable of collecting data on the neutral and charged particles through which it travels.

The second is a two-stage Terrier-Improved Orion that will shoot out a long trail of lithium gas to track how the upper atmospheric wind varies altitude. These winds are believed to be the drivers of the dynamo currents.

Based on the approved range schedule, the rockets are set for launch between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. June 24. The backup launch days are June 25 and from June 28 to July 8.

The rockets will be visible to residents in the Wallops region. The NASA Visitor Center will open at 8 a.m. on launch day for viewing the launches.