WALLOPS ISLAND, VA – NASA has postponed the launch of a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket scheduled this morning from the agency’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The rocket, carrying experiments developed by university students, has been rescheduled for 6:30 to 10:30 a.m., Friday, August 24. The launch was postponed because of boats in the avoidance area in the Atlantic Ocean off the Wallops Island coast.
Four university experiments will be flown as part of an educational project called RockSat-X, which is designed to provide students hands-on experience in designing, fabricating, testing and conducting experiments for space flight. The project is a joint effort between NASA and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.
The selected experiments for this year’s RockSat-X launch are from Baylor University, University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Puerto Rico and Virginia Tech.
The experiments will fly on a two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute rocket to a projected altitude of 98 miles. After the 15-minute flight, the payload carrying the experiments will land via a parachute in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 66 miles off the coast of Virginia. The 875-pound payload will be recovered for re-use and experiment analysis.
The rocket will be visible in the Wallops area. The NASA Visitor Center will open at 5:30 a.m. on launch day for public viewing.
The mission will be available live on Ustream beginning at 5:30 a.m. on launch day at: http://www.ustream.com/channel/nasa-wallops
Mission status on launch day also can be followed on Twitter and Facebook at: http://www.Twitter.com/NASA_Wallops https://www.facebook.com/NASAWFF
Mission status also is available on the Wallops launch status line at 757-824-2050.
More information on the RockSat-X mission is available at: www.nasa.gov/wallops
