Andøya Space and NASA Mission Ready for Launch

Two NASA sub-orbital research rockets are ready to launch on their mission to study the formation of vortices in the …
Andøya Space and NASA Mission Ready for Launch
Andoya Spaceport
Andøya Spaceport. Credit: Andøya Spaceport

Ibadan, 28 October 2024. – Two NASA sub-orbital research rockets are ready to launch on their mission to study the formation of vortices in the upper parts of the atmosphere. In the last few weeks, a joint team from Andøya Space and NASA Wallops Flight Facility worked to prepare two sub-orbital research rockets for the upcoming launch campaign.

The main scientific objective for the launch vehicles is to study how winds and energy from the lower parts of the atmosphere affect the upper atmosphere. Furthermore, the mission aims to figure out how gravity waves interact with each other, and how these interactions form vortices. NASA Wallops Flight Facility developed and built the launch vehicles which will subsequently launch from the Andøya Space Sub-Orbital’s launch facility at Andøya.

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One of the launch vehicles contains canisters of trimethyl aluminum (TMA) it will subsequently release into the upper atmosphere. This will create several glowing clouds which will visualize turbulence and vortices which four ground stations will consequently observe to learn how the clouds behave in the minutes after launch. The clouds will pose no hazards to residents in the region, despite being visible across a large area.

Several ground-based instrumentation will also support the launch campaign by performing remote sensing to determine the best time for launch, and at the same time gather additional data for the scientists analyzing the results from this project. Likewise, the Alomar Observatory will perform lidar measurements, and the project will also use radars and an airglow imager.

Dr. Gerald Lehmacher from Clemson University is the mission’s principal investigator, and the launch customer is the Sounding Rockets Program Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Joshua Faleti
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