It would be best if you thanked NASA for painting the skies with pink cotton candy clouds that hung over the Atlantic on Wednesday afternoon.
A three-stage suborbital sounding rocket was launched in the afternoon on March 3, 2021, for the Department of Defense from NASA’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch was to study ionization in space just beyond the reaches of Earth’s atmosphere.
According to 13NewsNow, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility launched a sounding rocket on the Eastern Shore.
The rocket soared to the edge of the atmosphere, releasing a small amount of vapor into space's near-vacuum. NASA said the colorful vapor is the equivalent of two BBQ grill propane tanks "into the near-vacuum of space" and is completely harmless.
A three-stage suborbital sounding rocket was launched in the afternoon on March 3 for the Department of Defense from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The launch was to study ionization in space just beyond the reaches of Earth’s atmosphere: https://t.co/OIDGWaAOS2 pic.twitter.com/JMLYze8DVE— NASA Wallops (@NASAWallops) March 4, 2021
When the sun illuminates the vapor as it diffuses into space, residents of the Mid-Atlantic will see vivid clouds above the ocean for about 20 minutes. The scientific experiment's goal, according to NASA, was to study ionization in space, just beyond the reaches of Earth's atmosphere.
The launch is scheduled for the afternoon of March 3, but no real-time launch status updates will be available. Read more: https://t.co/q7FuyhTX2p
— NASA Wallops (@NASAWallops) March 2, 2021
The rocket is expected to travel 500 miles offshore and a height of several hundred miles, WAVY.com reports.
The launch on Wednesday was not live-streamed, and officials don't have real-time updates on its progress. The visitor center on Wallops Island is closed to the public for watching the launch.
ALSO READ: NASA's Space Launch System Rocket Successful in Tank Testing
Other Launches From NASA Wallops Flight Facility
Meanwhile, NASA deployed a rocket from its Wallops Flight Facility to the International Space Station on February 20. The weather was ideal for Northrop Grumman's Cygnus cargo spacecraft to make its first flight of the year, with bright skies and sunlight.
Space.com said Northrop Grumman is one of NASA's commercial partners that maintain the space station well-stocked with supplies as part of the cargo resupply scheme.
The manufacturer Northrop Grumman designed has a history of naming each of its passenger capsules after making a substantial contribution to human spaceflight.
Keith Koehler, News Chief of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, told WMDT the aircraft is fitted with about 8,000 pounds of testing, crew equipment, and other tools.
According to Koehler, since astronauts will undergo muscle weakness in microgravity, one of the tests being sent to the space station would help them better understand muscle strength in space.
The team also went through a mission dress rehearsal ahead of the launch, where the launch conductors took the launch team through its paces and simulated various off-nominal situations in case something went wrong on launch day.
Another work currently underway would aid in the investigation of the benefits of fabricating artificial retinas in space.
Although this was the first launch of 2021, we've been assured there will be plenty more in the coming months.
RELATED ARTICLE: NASA Set to "Hot Fire" Its Space Launch System Core Stage
Check out more news and information on Space on Science Times.
