Weather frustrates Wallops launch of sounding rocket with light show – NASASpaceflight.com

June 12, 2017 by Chris Bergin

ATerrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket is set to provide people on the mid-Atlantic coast with a luminescent cloud light show. However, several attempts have been scrubbed, including one on Monday night. The sounding rocket set for launch from Wallops Flight Research Facility will help NASA test a new system that supports science studies of the ionosphere and aurora. Sounding Rocket Launch:

The launch has been delayed a few times, first due to unacceptable weather and the most recent on Sunday night due to a boat in the range. Mondays attempt was also scrubbed due to cloud cover over the ground stations tasked with observing the deployment of the payload.

The Terrier-Malemute launch vehicle which will launch this mission is a high-performance two-stage vehicle used for payloads weighing less than 400 pounds.

The first stage booster consists of a Terrier MK 12 Mod 1 rocket motor with four 340 square inch fin panels arranged in a cruciform configuration. The Terrier booster has an overall diameter of 18 inches.

For a payload weight of 200 pounds, the longitudinal acceleration during the boost phase is 26gs. The second stage propulsion unit is a Thiokol Malemute TU-758 rocket motor which is designed especially for high altitude research rocket applications. The external diameter of the Malemute is 16 inches.

The average thrust is 9,604 pounds. The maximum thrust level is approximately 14,200 pounds which results in a maximum longitudinal acceleration during second stage burning of 32gs for a 200 pound payload.

Liftoff weight of the Terrier-Malemute launch vehicle, less payload, is approximately 3260 pounds. This vehicle is usually rail launched and can be accommodated at most established launch ranges.

However, Wallops is its usual launch site a spaceport that is best known for its launches of Orbital ATK rockets, with the next scheduled to be the launch of the Antares rocket with the OA-8 Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The previous Cygnus was launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V.

During the flight of a two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket, 10 canisters about the size of a soft drink can will be deployed in the air, 6 to 12 miles away from the 670-pound main payload.

The canisters will deploy between 4 and 5.5 minutes after launch forming blue-green and red artificial clouds. These clouds, or vapor tracers, allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.

The development of the multi-canister ampoule ejection system will allow scientists to gather information over a much larger area than previously allowed when deploying the tracers just from the main payload.

Ground cameras will be stationed at Wallops and in Duck, North Carolina, to view the vapor tracers.

Clear skies are required at one of the two ground stations for this test.

The vapor tracers are formed through the interaction of barium, strontium and cupric-oxide. The tracers will be released at altitudes 96 to 124 miles high and pose no hazard to residents along the mid-Atlantic coast.

The blue-green and red vapor tracers may be visible from New York to North Carolina and westward to Charlottesville, Virginia.These clouds, or vapor tracers, allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.

The total flight time for the mission is expected to be about 8 minutes. The payload will land in the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles from Wallops Island and will not be recovered.

(Images via NASA).