NASA’s Electron Rocket Flight To Be Visible From Hudson Valley
Rocket Lab USA's first Electron Rocket is set to launch from the NASA facility in Virginia.
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other Federal agencies.
There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of outer space.
The mission named "Virginia is for Launch Lovers", will deploy radio frequency monitoring satellites for HawkEye 360. The 59-foot-tall Electron rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 2 at Virginia Space's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island Friday, Dec. 9 at 6 pm. With the mission, NASA is helping foster a low-Earth space economy and continues Wallops' 35-year history of support to the commercial launch industry.
Launch Visible from Hudson Valley
The launch window for Rocket Lab's first launch from Wallops is Dec. 9 from 6-8pm EST. The backup launch days are Dec. 10 to 20. Weather permitting, Electron's flight may be visible to residents throughout much of the east coast including the Hudson Valley area. From a distance, Electron will appear like a bright, fast-moving star climbing upward through the night sky.
Be on the lookout for Electron's flight on Friday, Dec. 9. Happy sky gazing!
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