WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (WAVY) — Mission accomplished! NASA successfully launched three Black Brant IX sounding rockets from its Wallops Flight Facility as part of the Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (APEP) mission.
The launch window was scheduled between 2:40 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. The first rocket was launched 45 minutes before the total solar eclipse. The second took off at 3:20 during the eclipse, and the third and final rocket launched at 4:28 p.m.
NASA said the three launches are important to gather data on how the sun’s disappearance affects the ionosphere. The ionosphere is home to all the charged particles in Earth’s atmosphere and it is where Earth’s atmosphere meets space.
“It is the upper layer of our atmosphere extending about 100 kilometers to a 1000 kilometers, roughly 60 to 600 miles. There the pressure is low enough that charged particles can remain free and show collective behavior. It’s an electrified region that reflects and refracts radio signals, and also impacts satellite communications as the signals pass through,” said Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida who directs the space and atmospheric instrumentation lab. “Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.”
Each of the three rockets had four sub-payloads for a total of 12 datasets that will be studied in preparation for future perturbations.
The next total solar eclipse over the contiguous U.S. is not until 2044.