A flash and a cloud of greenish-blue vapor was visible above the Levittown area.
The Black Brant XII rocket blasted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia just before 9 p.m. Sunday and it was spotted across the eastern U.S. and Bermuda.
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The launch came after more than a week of weather-related delays.
The suborbital rocket released barium vapor while in flight.
NASA scientists said they will be using the release to “study a very fundamental problem in space plasmas, namely, how are energy and momentum transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected?”
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Specialized cameras in Bermuda and on an aircraft were used to observe the vapor.
The barium vapor is not harmful to the public or environment, officials said.
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