Suborbital Rocket With Student Experiments Launched Today

A Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket carrying experiments developed by university students nationwide in the RockSat-X program was successfully launched at 6 a.m. EDT, August 13, from NASA's launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The RockSat-X program is conducted with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. The goal of the program is to provide students a hands-on experience in developing experiments for space flight. This experience allows these students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to a real world hands-on activity.

RockSat-X was lofted to an altitude of approximately 94 miles above the Atlantic Ocean before landing via parachute about 90 miles from the Wallops Flight Facility. Recovery of the payload is in progress.

The students in the program will receive their experiments later in the day to see how they performed and begin data analysis. Additionally, several experiments transmitted data during the flight down to Wallops via a telemetry system on board the rocket.