UPDATE: Wallops to launch student experiments into orbit Friday: When and how to watch
This article was updated at 4:05 p.m. on Wednesday, June 21 to reflect a new launch day.
Wallops Flight Facility is preparing for the next research-based launch as part of the RockOn and RockSat-C student flight program set for Friday, June 23, with the launch window starting at 5:30 a.m. The date was changed due to inclement weather and choppy seas.
This marks the continued efforts by the launch location to work with school-age and university students from across the country to give them hands-on experience building rockets and collecting vital data.
What is the RockOn program at Wallops?
More than 30 university teams are launching experiments into space as part of NASA’s RockOn and RockSat-C student flight programs, taking flight from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
In addition to the university payloads, some 80 additional experiments will take flight as part of the Cubes in Space program, which partners with Wallops to provide learning opportunities for students aged 11 to 18.
The experiments will fly on a Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket.
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Where can you watch the launch?
Live coverage of the mission is scheduled to begin at 5:10 a.m. on the Wallops YouTube site. Launch updates also are available via the Wallops Facebook and Twitter sites. The Wallops Visitor Center will be open for launch viewing opening at 4:30 a.m.
This is the 15th year that NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program has supported flight opportunities for the RockOn and RockSat-C programs, which provide students a hands-on opportunity to develop flight experiments. The programs are managed by Wallops’ Directorate Education team, which assumed responsibility of the nationwide program from the Colorado Space Grant Consortium in 2022.
“We’re thrilled to take the RockOn and RockSat-C programs into their 15th year, serving thousands of students over the years and, importantly, helping to develop a pipeline of aerospace professionals,” said Joyce Winterton, senior advisor for Education and Leadership Development at Wallops.
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How are educators getting involved?
Along with the student flights, there are some 20 educators participating in the Wallops Rocket Academy for Teachers, an educator professional development program that leverages the rocket mission to enhance classroom instruction in disciplines such as math, physics and science.
The student experiments will fly to more than 70 miles in altitude, spending several minutes in suborbital space before returning to Earth, where they will be recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. After landing, the students will recover their experiments from the payload and begin data analysis.
NASA's Sounding Rocket Program is conducted at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility, which is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA's Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program for the agency.
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This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: UPDATE: How to watch as Wallops launches student experiments Friday
