NASA to Launch Three ‘Sounding Rockets’ During Total Solar Eclipse — Project Named After the Egyptian God of Darkness and Chaos
This photo shows the three APEP sounding rockets and the support team after successful assembly. (Credit: APEP)
NASA is ready to launch three sounding rockets during the rare celestial event of a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
The mission aims to shed light on how the Earth’s upper atmosphere reacts to the sudden and temporary absence of sunlight.
The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission will see its sounding rockets ascend from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, targeting the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that becomes notably disturbed when the Moon’s shadow eclipses the Sun.
This trio of rockets, which previously saw action during the annular solar eclipse in October 2023 at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico,
