On the ride to Mom and Rich's from the airport, we were lucky enough to see this amazing rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. According to NASA, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket launched NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission on March 12, my first night in Florida. Launching from Cape Canaveral, the rocket placed the four-satellite constellation into a highly elliptical orbit, beginning a two-year mission to study reconnection in the magnetosphere. Launch occurred at the start of a thirty-minute window at 22:44 local time (02:44 UTC on Friday). NASA explains that the Magnetic Multiscale – or MMS – mission consists of four identical spacecraft which will be used to conduct plasma physics research in the environment of the Earth’s magnetosphere. The mission is intended to help scientists better understand a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection which has been observed in plasmas.
Amazingly, we were driving near Titusville on the Space Coast at just the right time to see the launch. Rich tuned in the broadcast on the radio and exited off the main highway to get us as close as possible to the take-off. We parked along the river road, turned off our car lights, and watched from beside the car. It felt like the Fourth of July in the line of dark cars and murmuring and expectant spectators. Then the ground seemed to explode with light, and a giant alternate moon rose over the river, leaving a white trail on the water. The display outdid any Grand Finale I'd ever seen. And, because the rocket flew so fast and far, the explosion reached us multiple seconds after the initial blast of light. I was in awe and pleased with such an amazing beginning for my long weekend in the sun.
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