NRO Mission Launches from NASA Wallops on Electron Rocket 

Mar 21, 2024

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility supported the a hit start of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at 3:25 a.m. EDT, Thursday, March 21, from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.

The rocket carried three collaborative review missions for the National Reconnaissance Attach of work (NRO). The mission, dubbed NROL-123, was the predominant NRO mission to flit on a Rocket Lab rocket launched from the US.

“We’re proud to enhance our commercial and authorities start companions with world-class start vary, security and make stronger companies,” acknowledged David L. Pierce, Wallops Flight Facility director. “It was an image ultimate start.”

This was the third Electron start from Wallops and the fourth start from Rocket Lab’s Open Complex-2 in Virginia.

The following start from Wallops is scheduled April 8, 2024, all thru the photo voltaic eclipse. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Route (APEP) mission will start three sounding rockets earlier than, all thru, and after peak eclipse time to know the diagram the sudden drop in daylight hours affects the Earth’s higher ambiance.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility offers agile, low-designate flight and start vary companies to fulfill authorities and commercial sector desires for having access to flight regimes worldwide from the Earth’s surface to the Moon and past. Wallops’ flight sources – ranging from review airplane, unmanned aerial programs, and high-altitude balloons to suborbital and orbital rockets – present a dynamic vary of flight capabilities. As properly as, operational start vary and airfield sources on the flexibility enable science, aerospace, defense, and enterprise sectors.

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