Community Corner
Look Up Today And You Might See A Rocket Ship
Antares's first test flight should be visible from Ledyard.
If you happen to see a bright light streaking across the sky tonht, don't be alarmed. It's not a meteor or a missile, it's a rocket ship!
NASA and the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp. are launching the company's new Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern shore of Virginia.
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to make eight unmanned supply runs to the International Space Station with its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo ferry. This will be Antares first test flight.
Liftoff was set for 5 p.m. today and since the weather is sunny and clear, we should all be able to see it.
"It's going to be the biggest, brightest and loudest thing ever launched from Wallops," Orbital executive vice president Frank Culbertson, a former NASA astronaut, told reporters. "It's going to be visible up and down the East Coast." [How to see the Antares rocket launch]
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