How to Watch
There are several ways to watch NASA's ATREX mission launch overnight:
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Visitor's Center will open at 10 p.m. EDT on launch night for local viewers. The center is located on VA 175 near Chincoteague Island, Va. Phone: (757) 824-2298 or 824-1344
NASA will also provide a live webcast of the launch, as well as updates, here: http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast
NASA updates on the mission are also available via Twitter @NASA_Wallops and on the launch center's Facebook page.
"We're Being Invaded!"
NASA used to conduct ion cloud experiments from Wallops Island much more frequently during the 1960s, '70s and '80s, usually in the predawn hours when most people were asleep. Along with trimethyl aluminum, other chemicals such as barium and triethylborane were used, often creating rather exotic colors of red, green and purple.
When such launches took place during convenient evening hours they usually took people by surprise. In March 1967, when three clouds were released at around 7 p.m., they were followed by countless numbers of people all along the East Coast calling newspapers and police stations, asking for explanations of the strange sightings.
One man described the rocket residue as "red balls of fire" at the time.
In January 1975, a barium cloud was released at around 5:30 p.m. in the evening. As luck would have it, the town of Riverhead, N.Y. was hit by a power outage at the very same time that the cloud appeared in the sky.
This resulted in a panic among the local residents who believed that the cloud had something to do with the loss of their power. According to accounts, one man called the local police station and shouted: "We’re being invaded! I can see the spaceship in the sky right now ... it's glowing with a greenish color and expanding as it’s draining us of our electric power!"