Posts Tagged ‘Wallops Flight Facility’

Video showing the latest news and events happening around NASA. Including the docking of the Progress 38 cargo spacecraft, the relocation of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft, the Rock On workshop at Wallops Space Flight Center and much much more.

You might remember the Black Brant XII launch that didn’t happen on the 15th, weather wasn’t good on the attempt and the rocket didn’t fly. Well tonight they gave it another go and everything worked this time around.

So, what was the purpose of the launch? Below is a snippet of the full details which can be read here.

The Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) will be conducted by the Naval Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense Space Test Program using a NASA four-stage Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket. Using ground based instruments and the STP/NRL STPSat-1 spacecraft, scientists will study an artificial noctilucent cloud formed by the exhaust particles of the rocket’s fourth stage at about 173 miles altitude.

What a Black Brant XII rocket looks like, not picture from CARE launch.

The Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) is a proposed alternative to the Max Faget-invented “tractor” Launch Escape System (LES) currently planned for use by NASA for its Orion spacecraft in the event an Ares I malfunction during launch requires an immediate abort.

A “pad abort” flight test of the MLAS was performed at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on July 8 2009 just after 6:25 AM. A primary test goal was the successful separation of a mock crew capsule from the abort system. Below are pictures and video of preparation before flight and the flight. Skip to 1:49 on the video to see the launch.