NASA is Trying to Launch a Small Rocket to Create Multicolored Clouds in the Sky

(The Verge) NASA has postponed the launch a small rocket from the coast of Virginia tonight, blaming cloudy skies at observation locations. The craft — a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket — is now planned to launch tomorrow, and will create multicolored clouds high in the sky for the purposes of studying our planet’s ionosphere and aurora.

If tomorrow’s launch does go ahead, the rocket will release canisters filled with various chemicals, forming green and red artificial clouds that may be seen along the US East Coast. It’s all part of a plan to study how particles move in the upper atmosphere, which could help us better study the aurorae and the parts of our atmosphere that are electrically charged by solar and cosmic radiation.

Don’t worry, the chemicals the rocket is releasing are in no way toxic to your health. They’re vapor tracers — gases that create visible clouds high in the sky. They’re made of barium, lithium, and tri-methyl aluminum. Those chemicals may not immediately sound familiar but you have likely seen them in action before — in fireworks. And fireworks usually release a whole lot more of these gases than a typical NASA mission, according to the space agency.

NASA has been deploying vapor tracers for a while now using sounding rockets, the small vehicles designed to take instruments to sub-orbital space, though NASA is testing out a new method for getting those vapor tracers into the upper atmosphere. Normally, the tracers were released directly from the rocket’s main payload, but this mission’s rocket is carrying up a specialized contraption called the “multi-canister ampoule ejection system.” After launch, the instrument will fling out multiple canisters filled with the tracers, in order to cover a wider area of the sky.

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