ACCOMACK COUNTY, VA - NASA's Wallops Flight Facility announced a new time frame for the upcoming TOMEX+ sounding rocket mission.
The NASA Wallops team says the original launch window scheduled to open on Monday, August 18th (10:00pm to 6:00am ET), will now start on Tuesday, August 19th. Officials say the change is due to unexpected cloud cover in the area and down range camera sites. They say "the mission needs clear skies in order to launch". The official launch window is now Tuesday, August 19th through September 3rd.
The TOMEX+ sounding rocket mission includes three sounding rockets that will launch five minutes apart from Wallops. NASA officials say they will "study a super-cold layer of the atmosphere about 56 miles above Earth where meteors burn up and create sodium atoms that are normally invisible. The rockets will release vapor clouds and use laser technology to make the sodium glow, creating a 3D map of how air moves and creates turbulence at the edge of space."
The NASA flight facility says mission updates and a narrowed-down window will be updated and posted to the facility's "Wallops Range" blog and social media prior to each attempt of the launch.
One of three sounding rockets for the TOMEX project mission is raised vertical on the rail of the 50K launcher on Pad 2 at Wallops Island, VA.