Community Corner
NASA Rocket Launch Likely to be Seen from Bedford
Forecasted clear skies over NH should be great for seeing the rocket.
Written by Todd Richissin:
Look up Tuesday night and you may just see a rocket over the skies of Bedford taking a special package into space.
A U.S. Air Force Minotaur I rocket is scheduled to lift-off at 7:30 p.m. from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0B at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
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The Minotaur will launch the Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space Office's ORS-3 mission, which features the deployment of 29 satellites in space.
The launch window is 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. The backup launch days run through November 26. And the prospects for seeing the rocket from Bedford are good: The weather forecast calls for clear skies during launch hours.
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Among the goods being hurled into space: A "cubesat" built by students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
From NASA:
"The Minotaur's primary payload is the Space Test Program Satellite-3 (STPSat-3), an Air Force technology-demonstration mission. Thirteen small cubesats aboard are being provided through NASA's Cubesat Launch Initiative. Among the cubesats is NASA's Small Satellite Program PhoneSat 2 second generation smartphone mission. Also included is the first cubesat built by high school students."
If you want to see the launch from a closer view, the NASA Visitor Center at Wallops and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge/Assateague Island National Seashore will be open for viewing. Visitors to Assateague need to be on the island by 6 p.m. before the entrance gate closes.
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