July 4 fireworks came early when a NASA Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket was successfully launched at 4:25 a.m., Thursday, June 29, from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.  During the 8-minute flight, 10 canisters about the size of a soft drink can were ejected in space, 6 to 12 miles away from the 670-pound main payload.
The canisters deployed blue-green and red vapor that formed artificial clouds visible from New York to North Carolina. During an ionosphere or aurora science mission, these clouds, or vapor tracers, allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.
NASA/Terry Zaperach (Wallops Flight Facility)
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/wallops/2017/nasa-wallops-rocket-launch-lights-up-the-mid-atlantic-coast">https://www.nasa.gov/feature/wallops/2017/nasa-wallops-rocket-launch-lights-up-the-mid-atlantic-coast</a> (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/wff-2017-001-004.jpg">image link</a>); see also <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/35629493055/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/35629493055/</a>