The LAMP mission, short for Loss through Auroral Microburst Pulsations, launched at 2:27 a.m. AKST (6:27 a.m. EST) Saturday, Mar. 5, 2022, on a Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket. The rocket launched to a nominal apogee and the principal investigator confirmed that good data was received from the experiment.
The mission hopes to understand an often overlooked kind of aurora, called a pulsating aurora, and to test a theory on what causes them.
Related Story: NASA Rocket Team to Chase Pulsating Aurora
The LAMP mission is an international collaboration with contributions from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Dartmouth College, University of New Hampshire, and University of Iowa, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tohoku University, Nagoya University, and Kyutech in Japan.