Experiment Hurtled Into Aurora Above Norway by NASA Rocket

摘要

A team of scientists led by Marc Lessard of the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center launched an instrument-laden, four-stage sounding rocket from Norway's Andoya Rocket Range into aurora about 200 miles above Earth early in the morning of Dec. 12, 2010, just before the two-week launch window slammed shut. For the 10-minute flight, a 65-foot-long Black Brant XII rocket arced through a funnel-shaped region of Earth's magnetic field lines before landing some 900 miles downrange in the Norwegian Sea. The science data were transmitted to a ground station during the short flight.