NASA Rocket Launch Scheduled For July 23 -- Test Article To Splashdown Off North Carolina Coast

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Jul 22, 2012, 04:12 ET

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., July 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has scheduled the launch of an inflatable heat shield technology demonstration flight from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., for Monday, July 23.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )

The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is to be launched on a Black Brant XI sounding rocket and is projected to splashdown approximately 100 miles east of Cape Hatteras, NC.

The launch window on Monday for all rockets, including several to test tracking systems and gather atmospheric data, is 5 to 8 a.m. The launch window for the IRVE-3 is 7 to 7:40 a.m.

The rocket will be visible to residents in the Wallops and southern Chesapeake Bay region.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will open at 4:30 a.m. on launch day for viewing the launch.

Further information on this mission including how to view the launch on the Internet and following the countdown on Twitter and Facebook is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/wallops

NASA Television will air the IRVE-3 launch live and stream it on the agency's website at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Further information on the IRVE-3 is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/hiad

SOURCE NASA