A NASA Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket was launched at 8:44 p.m. EDT, Sunday, May 16, 2021, from the Wallops Flight Facility.
The four stage rocket carried the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X, designed to study a very fundamental problem in space plasmas, namely, how are energy and momentum transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected.
Part of the mission included the release of barium vapors that formed two green-violet clouds over the Atlantic Ocean north of Bermuda. The barium vapor is not harmful to the environment or public health.
The launch and vapor clouds were reported as being seen as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia, as far south as Cape Canaveral, Florida, and as far inland as Ohio.
The next launch currently scheduled from Wallops is a NASA Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket. The launch is targeted for 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 26. The launch window runs until midnight. The launch is expected to be visible in the mid-Atlantic region. Live coverage of the launch on the Wallops IBM video channel will begin at 8:55 p.m. The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will not be open for launch viewing.
Image Credit: NASA Wallops/Terry Zaperach
Keith Koehler
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia