NASA Set to Launch Five Rockets in Five Minutes

Updated: Tuesday, 20 Mar 2012, 11:27 AM MST
Published : Tuesday, 20 Mar 2012, 11:27 AM MST

(NewsCore) - Assuming the weather is clear, a NASA experiment that will see five rockets launched in as many minutes will take place in Wednesday's wee hours from a coastal site in Virginia.

The countdown for the mission will begin at 7:00pm ET Tuesday, the space agency said, and the suborbital sounding rockets are set to take off from Wallops Island, Va., between midnight and 5:00am Wednesday.

The rockets are destined for the jet stream that lies 65 miles (104km) above Earth and packs winds that can zip well over 300mph (480kph).

After blasting off in near-synchronization, the rockets will release a chemical into that atmospheric highway, leaving milky, white cloud trails that will allow researchers and the public to "see" those winds from hundreds of miles away.

NASA said the clouds could be visible for up to 20 minutes from South Carolina to New Hampshire and Vermont.

The high-altitude jet stream is different from -- and not as well understood as -- the lower-altitude one often featured in local weather forecasts.

The rockets will pack tools to measure the pressure and temperature in the atmosphere at the peak of the jet stream's high-speed winds, NASA said. The mission will also help scientists learn about how these winds affect satellite and radio communications since the atmospheric region is rife with electrical turbulence.

After the rockets have completed the mission and their motors burn out, they will splash down and sink to the bottom of the ocean to get new lives as small artificial reefs.

NASA Set to Launch Five Rockets in Five Minutes