NASA Launches Two Rockets For Fourth Of July: "Rocket's Red Glare" Successful Launch, Will Study Atmosphere
NASA launched two rockets for the Fourth of July. "Rocket's Red Glare," indeed.
NASA launched the rockets from Virgina's Eastern Shore today in a very scientific early Fourth of July fireworks display.
The rockets will probe Earth's upper atmosphere. Their mission is to explore the electrical eddies in the winds of Earth's ionosphere.
The NASA rockets both blasted off in Virginia successfully within 15 seconds of each other. The 4th of July rockets took off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
A NASA Black Brant V was launched at 10:31:25 a.m. 15 seconds later, a Terrier-Improved Orion zoomed off from the launchpad.
The mission was part of the Daytime Dynamo experiment, a project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that aims to examine how electrical currents move in the ionosphere, which lies between 30 and 600 miles above Earth.
On Earth, we rely on this current, known as the dynamo, every day. Radio signals are bounced off the ionosphere. In addition, satellite communication and navigation signals have to pass through the ionosphere in order to reach Earth. If the ionosphere is disturbed, signals may be distorted.
"We have liftoff of the Black Brant V & Terrier-Improved Orion, for an Independence Day fireworks show," NASA Wallops officials wrote in a Twitter post marking the successful launch.