Ask yourself what was the glowing cloud you saw in Newport’s Ocean Drive last night? Apparently it was a NASA launch to study ionization in space just beyond the reach of the Earth’s atmosphere.
A bunch of Newport Buzz readers with angry eyes, including Mohamed Chamseddine, Aiden Regan and CB Barrett, sent us photos, and both Alex Fitzpatrick and Bethany Kent figured out the answer.
A three-phase suborbital-sounding rocket has been launched for the Department of Defense from NASA’s launch series at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
After flying to a height of several hundred miles and about 500 miles from the shore, the payload of the rocket released a small amount of vapor – an amount equivalent to about two BBQ propane tanks – into space. vacuum of space. According to NASA, there was no danger to public health or the Earth’s environment.
After the vapor release, residents along the east coast of the United States had colorful clouds visible across the ocean as the sun illuminated the vapor before spreading harmlessly into space.
A three-phase suborbital-sounding rocket was launched for the Department of Defense from NASA’s Wallops flying facility in Virginia on March 3, afternoon.
The launch was to study ionization in space just beyond the reach of the earth’s atmosphere: https://t.co/OIDGWaAOS2 pic.twitter.com/JMLYze8DVE
– NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) March 4, 2021
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