WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (Delmarva Now) -- Students from four universities will have projects aboard a NASA rocket due to launch from the Wallops Flight Facility.
The sounding rocket was previously scheduled to launch on Saturday morning, but officials called it off because rough seas would have prevented payload recovery options.
The launch is now scheduled for Sunday, March 25 with a launch window of 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
When the rocket does launch, the undergraduate projects include propulsion systems for small spacecraft; a new wire insulation material; a small reentry spacecraft; and a deployable boom and solar blanket for small satellites, according to a press release.
“The four universities were selected in 2016 to participate in the NASA Undergraduate Student Instrument Project or USIP. The teams are not only exploring projects that may impact future spaceflight, but they are getting invaluable experience that will propel them into their future careers,” said Joyce Winterton, Wallops' senior advisor for education and leadership development.
The universities are Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne; University of Kentucky, Lexington; Utah State University, Logan; and Univeristy of Nebraska, Lincoln.
The experiments will be aboard a 43-foot tall Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket, and will fly to an altitude of about 100 miles.
Following the flight, the experiments will descend by parachute and land in the Atlantic Ocean, about 70 miles from Wallops Island. They will be recovered and returned to the students later in the day, the release stated.
The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will open at 5:30 a.m. on launch day.
Live coverage of the mission is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. on the Wallops Ustream site. Launch updates also are available via the Wallops Facebook and Twitter sites. Facebook Live coverage begins at 6:15 a.m.
The launch is expected to be visible from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland.
Smartphone users can download the “What’s Up at Wallops” app for information on the launch as well as a compass showing the precise direction for launch viewing.
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