The rocket, which will be carrying three national security payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office, is scheduled to launch at 7 a.m. ET on Tuesday from the the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s (MARS) Pad 0B—located at the southern tip of the flight facility—on Wallops Island.
Weather permitting, the launch of the mission—dubbed NROL-111—may be visible to people throughout the mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the Eastern Seaboard.
The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will not be open for this launch so the public won’t be able to watch the event from the facility itself.
But NASA said there are viewing locations on Chincoteague Island where people can watch the launch, including Robert Reed Park on Main Street or Beach Road.
If you are not located within the region where it might be possible to see the rocket launch in real life, or are not willing or able to travel there, don’t worry because it will be possible to view the event online.
The Wallops YouTube site will be providing coverage of the launch, with the broadcast beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The event will also be streamed live on NASA TV.
In addition, launch updates will be available via the Wallops Facebook and Twitter pages.
NROL-111 will be the National Reconnaissance Office’s second dedicated launch from Wallops in the past 12 months.
The Minotaur I rocket being used in the mission is manufactured by American multinational aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman.
The rocket, which is made up of four stages, has the capability to launch payloads of up to 1,278 pounds into low-Earth orbit, according to the company. The Minotaur I has conducted 11 missions with a 100 percent success rate, carrying 62 satellites into orbit, according to the Northrop Grumman website.
No specific information has been disclosed about the payload for the upcoming mission. But the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) said in a press release that NROL-111 supports the agency’s overall national security mission “to provide intelligence data to United States’ senior policy makers, the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense.”
The NRO forms part of the United States Intelligence Community and is an agency of the Department of Defense responsible for “developing, acquiring, launching and operating America’s reconnaissance satellites, as well as operating associated data processing facilities in support of national security.”
The NRO uses a variety of satellites to meet its goals, ranging from small spacecraft to larger more traditional satellites.
“This approach allows the NRO to pursue a hybrid overhead architecture designed to provide global coverage against a wide range of intelligence requirements, carry out research and development efforts, and assist emergency and disaster relief efforts in the U.S. and around the world,” the press release said.
