Did you see that thing in the sky over Long Island last night and wonder what the heck was going on?
Looking like a UFO or a white ball with a fuzzy tail, that thing in the air around sunset was actually an unmanned Northrop Grumman rocket launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island in Virginia at around 8:30pm on Tuesday, August 1. It was heading to the resupply to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Many Long Islanders were able to get a glimpse of the rocket mission - called the Cygnus NG-19 by NASA - as it streaked spaceward.
Reader Rita Anderson, from Dix Hills, sent us the below video from Robert Moses Park Office Fishing Piers.
Video: Rita Anderson
LI Weather Guy on Facebook also posted his video online last night.
According to Northrop Grumman, for this mission Cygnus will once again host NASA’s Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment (SAFFIRE), enabling scientists to continue studying the way fire behaves in microgravity. The experiment will be conducted after Cygnus has departed the station as part of the NG-19’s secondary mission.
Watch this NASA video of the launch upclose:
Video: NASA.
Incidentally this mission spacecraft is named in remembrance and celebration of the life of NASA astronaut Dr. Laurel Clark.
Dr. Clark was an accomplished undersea medical officer and naval flight surgeon prior to her NASA career. During her first and only spaceflight, STS-107, Dr. Clark and the rest of the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia tragically lost their lives on Feb. 1, 2003 when the shuttle did not survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.