This Thursday’s launch from the Wallops Island Flight Facility will be testing a new method for suborbital rocket missions with the Black Brant IX sounding rocket.
NASA says that the deployment method uses small rocket motors similar to those used in model rockets to eject the sub-payload from the main payload.
The two sub-payloads will use mixtures of barium and small amounts of lithium and strontium that will burn and form tracers to measure the wind in the region between the earth’s atmosphere and space.
The vapor release will span up to 10 minutes at between 124 and 217 miles above the earth.
