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LuckyGuy's avatar

East Coasters, Will you be watching the NASA rocket launch tonight, May 10, 2021?

Asked by LuckyGuy (43880points) May 10th, 2021

A small NASA sounding rocket will launch tonight, creating a brief, colorful light show over the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, and you can watch all the action live.

NASA is scheduled to launch a four-stage Black Brant XII rocket from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia for a special space mission called the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X. The rocket is scheduled to lift off during a 40-minute launch window, beginning at 8:04 p.m. EDT tonight (0004 GMT on Tuesday, May 11). The launch has been delayed twice in the last two days due to bad weather.

You can watch it live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA; coverage begins at 7:40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT). You can also follow the flight on the NASA’s Wallops IBM video site.

It should be a great show for people in New Jersey!

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14 Answers

LuckyGuy's avatar

Rats! Flight scrubbed until tomorrow 8:05 PM due to high winds. Oh well.

KRD's avatar

Sure, I’ll watch it tomorrow.

KRD's avatar

Except I’m not a East Coaster.

JLeslie's avatar

I hope I remember. A lot of us where I live have been watching the recent launches. I’m about 100 miles due west of the launch facility.

LuckyGuy's avatar

This launch is off the coast of Virginia, near Maryland and Delaware and it is supposed to light up the atmosphere at about 250 miles altitude. It is making a small, simulated Aurora.

JLeslie's avatar

Excellent. I’ll tell my parents. They’re about 50 miles west of Annapolis.

I’m going to still hope to see the effects here from FL.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Because I’m such a geek I did the math to see how far away you would be to see something 250 miles above the earth’s surface just over the horizon (assuming I was at 300 ft above sea level.) I get 1434 miles. Beyond that it will be below the horizon.
If it only goes up 200 miles and you are at sea level the visible distance will be 1264 miles.

If your sky is clear in the direction of Virginia it will be worth checking out.

@KRD You don’t have to be right on the coast, although that is best. If you are within 1000 miles of Virginia you might be able to see it.

JLeslie's avatar

I should be able to see it. I’m less than 1k miles.

LuckyGuy's avatar

It is going at 8:36 PM tonight. 12 minutes! .

LuckyGuy's avatar

Now delayed until 8:45! At least the sky will be darker!

LuckyGuy's avatar

Cancelled at 3 minutes before launch. :-(.

KRD's avatar

@LuckyGuy I live in Colorado on the Front Range.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@LuckyGuy Keep us updated. I will watch on the NASA channel when you give us some warning.

LuckyGuy's avatar

@KRD Good news! If the eastern sky is clear all the way across the US, and you go to the top of Gray’s Peak, and somehow go up an additional 35 miles or so above that, you might see it.
I think you are better off watching the even on Wallops Facebook page or NASA TV.

Here is the link to the NASA site. NASA TV Wallops

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