NASA successfully launched a NASA Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket testing a modified Black Brant motor, launch vehicle and spacecraft systems and sub-payload ejection technologies the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 7:07 p.m. today.
The payload flew to an altitude of 160 miles and impacted in the Atlantic Ocean. There are no plans to recover the payload.
The primary purpose of the flight was to test the performance of the second-stage Black Brant motor. Preliminary indications are that the motor performed as planned. Preliminary data analysis of the technology experiments on the payload is in progress.
Early reports from the public are that the launch vapor cloud from one of the technology experiments was seen from New Jersey to western Pennsylvania, central Maryland and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
The next launch currently scheduled from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket in November.
