NASA Rocket Launch Could Be Visible In MD On Friday

MARYLAND — NASA is set to launch a rocket from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday at 7:58 p.m. If skies are clear — and that's a big if for people in the Baltimore/DC region — the launch should be visible to people up and down the Eastern seaboard.

The mission is called KiNet-X, with the Black Brant XII rocket blasting off. This study will help scientists better understand things like Auroras and how they are formed and their movement from place to place.

The rocket will release a barium vapor about 9-10 minutes into the flight north of Bermuda at an altitude of more than 200 miles. NASA will be studying the vapor release with diagnostic instrumentation onboard the rocket.

The rocket should be visible to the southeast 30 to 60 seconds after the launch at 7:58 p.m. on Friday. The NASA Wallops Visitor Center will not be open for viewing.

Clouds could be a factor with a band of rain forecast over the Baltimore-D.C. area Friday afternoon into early evening. According to the National Weather Service, showers and thunderstorms are possible before midnight on Friday but the clouds could linger for several hours after the rain ends. The chance of precipitation is 80 percent.

The weather also could lead to the cancellation of the launch of the rocket. If it does get canceled, NASA has other times it could launch the rocket through May 16.

The KiNet-X experiment consists of a single rocket launch carrying seven separable payloads. Diagnostic instrumentation is carried on the main payload and four small subpayloads, while the barium vapor clouds will be released from two additional larger subpayloads, NASA said in a news release.

This allows for a multiple-point view of the disturbances created by the barium vapor releases. The four small subpayloads, nicknamed "Bobs," each about the size of a two-liter soda bottle, make measurements of the space environment through which the barium-vapor-induced disturbance travels.

Live coverage of the mission will be available on the Wallops IBM video site beginning at 7:30 p.m. on launch day.

Written by Patch staffer Mark Hand.