Tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 19, tens of millions of residents up and down the US East coast have another opportunity to watch a spectacular night launch from NASA’s Wallops Island facility in Virginia – weather permitting.
See a collection of detailed visibility and trajectory viewing maps, as well as streaming video of the launch, courtesy of rocket provider Orbital Sciences and NASA Wallops Flight Facility.
And to top that off, the four stage Minotaur 1 rocket is jam packed with a record setting payload of 29 satellites headed for Earth orbit.
And if that’s not enough to pique your interest, the Virginia seaside launch will also feature the first cubesat built by high school students.
And viewing is open to the public.
Blastoff of the Minotaur I rocket for the Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office on the ORS-3 mission is on target for tonight, Nov. 19, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0B at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia.
The launch window for the 70 foot tall booster opens at 7:30 pm EST and extends until 9:15 pm EST.
The ORS-3 mission is a combined US Air Force and NASA endeavor that follows the flawless Nov. 18 launch of NASA’s MAVEN Mars orbiter from Florida by just 1 day.
However the pair of East coast launch pads are separated by some 800 miles.
According to NASA and Orbital Sciences, the launch may be visible along a wide swatch from northern Florida to southern Canada and well into the Midwest stretching to Indiana – if the clouds are minimal and atmospheric conditions are favorable from your particular viewing site.
The primary payload is the Space Test Program Satellite-3 (STPSat-3), an Air Force technology-demonstration mission, according to NASA.
Also loaded aboard are thirteen small cubesats being provided through NASA’s Cubesat Launch Initiative, NASA said in a statement. Among the cubesats is NASA’s Small Satellite Program PhoneSat 2 second generation smartphone mission and the first ever cubesat assembled by high schooler’s.
Locally, the NASA Visitor Center at Wallops and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge/Assateague Island National Seashore will be open for viewing the launch. Visitors to Assateague need to be on the island by 6 p.m. before the entrance gate closes.
Live coverage of the launch is available via UStream beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST on launch day. Watch below:
I’ve seen Google Earth predicted paths like these before, during LADEE’s launch, they’re great! I was wondering, can you guys share that with us, so we could see what the launch would look like from where we live? I’m in Ohio, which is one of the marginal places where one could see tonight’s launch, but it would really help if I could see exactly where to look. Thanks!
miguez, you can get the google earth file from Orbital Sciences’ website:
http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurI_ORS-3/
Hi Tim, thanks for the answer! I wasn’t able to find it on that page, but I did find one for LADEE, which served as a good reference for this launch, in another page, after I poked around a little bit. Thanks again!
Any update on a launch time…
My wife, youngest son and I caught the Minotaur arcing to the southeast from Methuen, MA! Very bright and clearly a rocket given its trajectory. Keep up the great work Wallops!
about what time out of curiosity?
It was around 8:17 or so in the southern sky. Bright orange in color – brighter and more visible than I would have thought. There’s a another launch from Wallops to the ISS currently scheduled for December 15th – might have a chance on that one. We accidentally slept through the LADEE launch when Dad set the alarm clock for 11AM instead of PM ;(
that’s awesome. i was south of u so it would have been higher in my sky. let’s hope 4 clear skies that day.
We saw it. It appeared as a bright orange light. Unfortunately clouds quickly obscured the rocket, but it was still cool to see.
Dammit i just found out about this! I saw LADEE taking off from MA in September and would have loved to see another. Is there anyplace a Wallops launch schedule exists?
Wallops Flight Facility home page (see upcoming launch in right margin):
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/ or NASA launch schedule here: http://nasa.gov/missions/schedule/
Thank u so much! I usually do a better job doing my own research but it’s nice to be lazy sometimes.
I always get updates like this a day late. (I received this notice on Nov. 20th). The same is usually true of aurora, meteor showers, ect… Is there any way to get more notice?
u can try to keep up to date with the Wallops launch facility website, here: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/home/index.html#.Uo1f4eKJ6HM