Watch Live Tonight! NASA Rocket Launch to Spawn Artificial Clouds

@KDemo I was watching it. Too bad it was scrubbed. Maybe tomorrow night?

@Barney - Yup. Stupid Boats.

@RiotDemon - I’m not positive they will even stream the clouds - it’s possible they’re just showing the launch. I want to see luminescent clouds!

@KDemo meh. I want to see the clouds mainly. I can see launches all the time with Space X.

@mikibell
I think you get to suspend his Intelligence And Literacy Credentials for a month.

@mikibell - That’s Connecticut, Maryland - right?

@f00l slightly, and I mean everrrrr so slightly, in his defense, he knows they take rt 8 north to camp in upper state NY. He doesn’t understand it goes northwest! So he thought NY wrapped over CT, near MA…he didn’t know they really meant NYC area

@KDemo yeah, yeah, that’s what he meant

@KDemo Will the light show be at launch time or later? I read something that said early morning. I want to go look.

@sammydog01 - Clouds are supposed to happen shortly after launch. There are lots of mixed up stories out there because it was postponed several times.

@sammydog01 Posted currently (7:30 central time) is:

Update for June 12, 7 a.m. ET: Launch Tonight Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility now aim to launch a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket tonight between 9:04 p.m. EDT and 9:19 p.m. EDT (0104-0119 GMT).

@daveinwarsh - Space Needle, of course.

@thismyusername - Yep, this is the one that’s working for me right now -
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops.

Also streaming on FB, the comments are interesting as well.
https://www.facebook.com/NASAWFF

@KDemo Boo. I was hoping it would make the swim meet go faster. Then the camera went to a building.

@sammydog01 - That’s a long meet! How is your swimmer doing?

The joke is that the clouds are preventing the clouds.

@KDemo One is doing great, the other meh

@KDemo hey at least it isn’t random boats this time

@f00l Launch window is roughly the same time every night through Sunday. If it keeps getting scrubbed to the weekend I might actually be able to see it in person! I’ve never seen a sounding rocket, but I’ve heard the sheer speed is impressive!

@jqubed That’s what she said.

@mike808

You got a recording?

@mike808

Afraid it might be deja vu (no view) all over again.

@KDemo He said we’ll know in five minutes.

@sammydog01 - Damn.

@sammydog01 - See you back tomorrow, same bat time same bat channel!

@KDemo I went for a walk and watched the lightning bugs in the trees instead. It was pretty cool.

@sammydog01 - Sounds awesome. I’ve never seen lightning bugs in person.

@KDemo
You don’t have fireflies in WA? They are cool!

@f00l - I’ve never seen them on the west coast. Made me wonder - found this:

In the U.S., almost no species of fireflies are found west of Kansas—although there are also warm and humid areas to the west. Nobody is sure why this is. There are many species of fireflies throughout the world, and the most diversity in species is found in tropical Asia as well as Central and South America.

Also these firefly sightings:

@KDemo wow… the things you don’t stop to consider. I knew the south had some freaking big bugs we don’t have here in the north, but I never stopped to think that someone can’t watch lightning bugs!!! They are sooo magical!

@KDemo Oh my gosh! You have had a deprived life. We spent hours as kids catching them in butterfly nets, transferring them to jars with holes in the lid (sometimes holes too big so they’d escape) and carry them around with us at night watching them blink on and off. We’d also run into swarms of them watching them scatter. It was a blast (and still is a blast except I haven’t seen any around here - will get to play with them when I go home to visit).

@mikibell @Kidsandliz - I’ve wished I could see them. The biggest issue to me is that there’s no scientific explanation for their absence in the west.

@KDemo I wish you could see them- it’s magical. If I go walking just after sunset they are just over the grass but a few hours later they are up in the trees. Our road has big trees on both sides and they are full of sparkles. It’s amazing.

@sammydog01 don’t think I’ve ever seen them. The closest thing is these lights I saw in a store:

@sammydog01 - I’ll be right over. Did I miss dinner?

@KDemo Yes but ice cream was on sale so we can have dessert.

@KDemo

They were all over the place at dusk in summer when I was a kid.

I’m not out at dusk much now, but in the cities they’re not as common, people probably spray a lot more, esp out of fear of Zika.

In rural parts, tho, yeah, still there.

@sammydog01

On my way. What kind of ice cream?

Firefly party at @sammydog01’s!

@f00l

@sammydog01

@sammydog01
Hope you still have some for Thursday. : )

@f00l - Too cloudy - Next try tomorrow.
I’ll have to miss it if it actually launches tomorrow.

@f00l It’s pouring rain in Virginia. Boo.

@sammydog01 Send some down to MD. Still dying of the warm up in here.

@djslack - Cool. Will that generate or use up cloud storage?

@KDemo
Good thought.

Will WV start hoarding all the clouds?

@KDemo Both. There is more cloud to store in, but also more cloud to store. Net effect: confusion.

@brhfl - Wow, I almost forgot. Thanks for that!

Seems cloud-forming rockets are like recent politics - consistently disappointing.

@brhfl - There’s still time . . .
Update for June 18, 8:30 p.m. ET: NASA has delayed the Father’s Day launch of a sounding rocket tonight due to high winds at the Wallops Flight Facility launch site. The agency has an initial launch window that stretches through Tuesday, June 20.

@KDemo Does that mean tomorrow?

@sammydog01 Looks like it -

The launch of the NASA Terrier Improved Malemute sounding rocket scheduled for Sunday, June 18, has been scrubbed because winds are not conducive for launch. The launch has been rescheduled for no earlier than Monday, June 19, with a launch window between 9:06 and 9:21 p.m.
Project officials will meet following an afternoon weather briefing June 19 to make a determination to proceed with the count later in the day.
The launch window orginally was scheduled to end June 18. However, June 19, 20 and 24 have been added to the window.

@sammydog01 - Yeah, uh huh, tomorrow for sure!
Wonder if they’re giving odds in Vegas?

@brhfl - Talk about procrastinators!

Maybe they just missed the boat?

Or - wait. They’re trying to miss the boats.

@brhfl if we quit looking at it, will it ever boil?

@cinoclav We just got a severe thunderstorm watch posted for tonight.

@sammydog01 - That could be cool to watch instead?

@KDemo Make that severe thunderstorm warning. Lightning detected 0.3 miles. I didn’t get the turtles in before it started. Good thing they can swim. Weird thing instead of hiding they are out swimming around.

@KDemo it was amazing to watch…driving north to get home, the horizon was almost as dark as night, to the east bright sunlight. It was apocalyptic. The clouds from the east were quickly flowing to meet the dark clouds, which were meandering towards the light. Flashing lights flickered it the distance… It was surreal!

@sammydog01 - Sounds like it’s coming your way from @mikibell’s. Awesome description - I can feel the electric air!

@KDemo I think technically @sammydog01’s storms are headed here…

The clouds looked like you could touch them, like cotton candy…they were so thick and close to the horizon…it was absolutely beautiful. You could see the struggle of the air currents and pressures of the two fronts colliding.

Would have taken pictures if I weren’t trying to beat the storms home.

@mikibell I think ours are actually headed toward Wallops Island.

@mikibell -

Too bad they didn’t launch a few of those cloud canisters into the mix.

I like to do a stupid thing. I stand in the park at the top of the hill behind my house with an umbrella in thunderstorms. There’s nothing so breathtaking as watching the lightning strikes travel across the valley below.

@f00l ahhhh my senior thesis was on samuel beckett… can’t remember what about him… but I remember that waiting for godot weighed in heavily… goodness I am forgetting stuff rapidly! End game was also part of it…

@mikibell

/giphy "waiting for Beckett"

@f00l There are not enough stars I can offer you for slapping down Godot in this context. Brilliant.

(No, he’s not Pozzo; and no, he’s never [ever] coming.)

^ oops - double negative - - sorry! That should have been written: ([…]"yes, he’s never [ever] coming.)

(@f00l)

@brhfl

Now that sounds like something I heard once before …?

@brhfl - Ho hum.

@brhfl soon they can launch them with 4th of july fireworks!!

@brhfl

@brhfl Bummer. I keep going down to the harbor to hopefully see the colorful artificial clouds, but alas all I see are boats, water and a sunset. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s actually quite calming.

@heartny

Is that your pix? Where is that?

@f00l Yes, that’s my pic taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7. Port Jefferson, NY.

@heartny - Amazing!!
I was guessing gif, because I don’t see the clouds that prevented launch tonight. Oh no - is NASA lying to us too?

@KDemo
I’m still not looking…

@thismyusername

Suuure. Launch when no one is watching, then say it was perfectly awesome.

Terrier-improved Malamute

@KDemo @sammydog01

I’ve been following these dates hoping to see the launch.

Unfortunately, 4:15 AM is about an hour after I go to sleep.

Oh well, back to being content with fireflies.

@KDemo Bummer. I liked 9:00PM much better. Hopefully the weather conditions will be unfavorable again and the sun angles and moon down conditions will be better at night. Otherwise I’ll watch it on YouTube.

@KDemo don’t worry, all the previous launches at this time frame were also scrubbed (boats, weather, etc).

@thismyusername - Actually, that’s 1:15 am for me, so I have a chance. But since I can only watch online, it doesn’t matter as much if I see it in real time.

Glowing luminescent clouds in a dark sky sound like they’d be phenomenal in person.

@heartny - I hope you get to see it too, would really like to see your photos.

@KDemo Awww, thank you very much. Here’s another photo from the harbor where I hope to watch the luminescent clouds. At night, not in the morning.

@heartny - Great shot! Looks so peaceful.

@KDemo It is peaceful, as long as you can ignore the live band and the people drinking at the bar under the palm trees

@KDemo It wouldn’t be a sounding rocket launch from Wallops if it wasn’t at 4 a.m.

@thismyusername Would you email me at my favorite color barney001 at the G mail? If you can’t figure that out, hmm, I guess you need help. Tell me.

@KDemo

So should I stay up or set an alarm?

Can I stay up?

If I set an alarm will it wake me?

YouTube makes me happy jic, I guess.

@f00l - Pretty sure they timed it for insomniacs and vampires. Only you know whether you qualify?

@KDemo guess I’ll be watching YouTube videos of it. Not like I’m close enough to see it in person anyway, so it doesn’t really need to be live.

@KDemo Setting an alarm. Stupid me.

@sammydog01 - I might still be awake. Really hope it happens this time. Here is the link again, to see if it’s a go at the last minute.

https://www.facebook.com/NASAWFF

You have to scroll down a ways - past the solar eclipse entry.

@KDemo

I would complain about time zones, but they’re irrelevant in this case.

(@narfcake - *pssssst)

Oh well. I’ll watch it on YouTube late. I just hope nobody ruins it for me beforehand.

P.s Is this attempt 10, or 11?

@PlacidPenguin

Ok, you kinda dared me.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Some stuff happens.

Or not.

@KDemo OK I’m up

@KDemo Holy crap. I could see it. Pretty colors. And like 7 or 8 blobs. I wish I had a decent camera.

@KDemo

@KDemo

@KDemo I also wish I had turned the flash off earlier. Thanks so much for making me get up in the middle of the night! So cool!

Oh, awesome, @sammydog01!
Online viewing didn’t work out so well.

@sammydog01 - Bet the dispatch operators get lots of calls about UFOs.

@KDemo I bet! Here is one of my photos blown up.

Pretty colors!

@KDemo OK here’s another one blown up. I really wish I got the initial giant muti-colored blob too.

@sammydog01 oh I am sooooooo glad I stayed asleep!!!

@mikibell Well it was cool if you live in Virginia anyway.

@KDemo Pretty colors in the sky happened- just like they promised.

@sammydog01 - Maybe all the waiting increased expectations?
Like fireworks videos can’t begin to portray the real-life experience, I’m sure it was awesome in person, just didn’t translate so well.

@KDemo I went to bed at 11 after doing the runner job at a swim meet with the alarm clock set for 6:15 to take my kid to a camp 20 miles away. So at 4:25 I was standing in my front yard in jammies and a blanket thinking WTF am I doing. Then the lights showed up. Yeah, fireworks are prettier but this was space!!! So I’m glad I did it. But I would have been totally bummed if I stayed up to watch it on Facebook- you may as well do that in the morning. I don’t know why NASA released only a time-lapsed clip- it’s not like it took all that long and you could see the individual cans go off.

Then I picked up a screw in my tire on the way back from camp and had to change to the spare in the toll employees parking lot on the highway. Then I had to limp on to the nearest gas station to pump up the spare and then to the tire place to get it fixed. Naptime!

@RiotDemon

Vapor clouds that were formed during this flight were seen from New York to North Carolina.

I would guess where the sky was clear enough.

@KDemo I just wonder how small they looked from the farthest points.

@RiotDemon I live about 120 miles away and they were big and colorful.

@thismyusername - Those helped to give a sense of the proportions. Thanks!

@KDemo I know my photos are crappy but if you look at the ones that aren’t enlarged the light at the bottom is our neighbors’ front porch light. You can see the outline of their house if you look carefully. The dots were pretty big.