WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from a separate story on a rocket launch that aired on February 19, 2022.
There was a different type of rocket launch at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday morning.
A tweet from the facility said that as of 5:35 a.m., a suborbital sounding rocket had launched, carrying dozens of student experiments into the sky.
A news release from NASA explains that the experiments are a part of their RockOn! and RockSat-C programs, which were created to give youth an opportunity to learn the skills needed to build certain types of rockets.
In addition to the experiments created by participants, 80 cubes with experiments created by both middle schoolers and high schoolers were also launched as a part of the Cubes in Space program.
The experiments and launches are funded in large part by the Virginia Space Grant Consortia. They're designed to give teenagers access to learning more about the STEM field and what it takes to create and work for NASA.
The two-tier rocket flew 70.5 miles in total altitude before parachuting into the ocean. The experiments will be recovered, and participants will be able to see how they performed.
The next scheduled launch at Wallops is set for August 9, and it will be a rocket constructed by RockSat-X, which is the big brother of the two programs that launched on Friday.