❝ Since June 1, NASA has been trying to launch a small rocket to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere. In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the rocket finally carried its payload into space, giving a spectacular light show along the east coast, from New York to North Carolina.

❝ A few minutes after liftoff, the rocket ejected 10 soda can-sized containers of barium, strontium, and cupric oxide…The canisters burst into colorful clouds that, as they drift, help scientists study how ions move in the ionosphere—the part of our atmosphere that interacts with the charged particles streaming from the sun. These types of studies can help scientists understand auroras and predict the effects of space weather.

Suddenly catching sight of something like this – several hundred miles away and not expecting something like this to appear in the night sky can really freak you out. Happened to me once. Up in the middle of the night when I lived on Fairhaven Harbor in New Haven, CT – I had a great view to the South when one of these tests went off. And this was decades ago before easy access to online info to figure out what I’d seen. Phew! 🙂