NASA’s TOMEX+ Sounding Rocket Launch Scrubbed Again at Wallops Flight Facility

Virginia’s Wallops Flight Facility - NASA’s Turbulent Oxygen Mixing Experiment Plus (TOMEX+) mission was postponed for the second consecutive launch opportunity in as many days after teams encountered unfavorable weather conditions during its scheduled backup window on Tuesday night, August 26.

The mission, which aims to fire three suborbital sounding rockets-two Terrier-Improved Orion vehicles and a Black Brant IX-to study upper-atmosphere turbulence and oxygen mixing in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere, initially targeted Monday, August 25, but was delayed by cloud cover and high sea states in the recovery area. A prelaunch briefing on August 24 noted that poor visibility and rough coastal waters had forced the mission team to push the first launch attempt to the backup period of August 26 through September 3, with nightly windows running from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern Time.

Late Tuesday evening, mission control announced the postponement of the Aug. 26 launch attempt, citing persistent overcast skies over the Virginia Beach-Wallops corridor and continued safety concerns in the designated ocean recovery zone. NASA engineers will assess weather forecasts and sea conditions for the next available window, with the livestream restarting five minutes before each nightly attempt.

When successful, the first two rockets will release vapor tracers to map wind patterns nearly 60 miles above Earth, followed roughly five minutes later by a lidar-equipped Black Brant IX designed to illuminate and measure the atomic sodium layer. Together, these three flights will produce a three-dimensional picture of atmospheric mixing that affects satellite drag and high-altitude cloud formation, and informs meteorological and planetary studies.

NASA has indicated that additional launch attempts will be made nightly through September 3, weather permitting. The public can follow live updates and video streams via NASA Wallops’ Facebook, X, and YouTube channels.