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NASA is telling New Yorkers to “grab that cup of coffee” and look south towards the sky above their Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 7am tomorrow (Tuesday).
The launch of a Minotaur 1 rocket should be visible on the East Coast — including in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, NASA said.
The Northrop Grumman Corporation’s rocket has a high-security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. NASA did not give precise flight details, but said on Twitter: “We’re not releasing the exact trajectory for this mission. If it helps, from Wallops we always launch over the Atlantic Ocean and never over land.”
NASA advise that the rocket trails should be visible in New York around 30-60 seconds after take-off. You can time when to look to the skies by watching NASA’s live stream that starts at 6:30am on the Wallops YouTube channel.
Here are some recent examples of photos taken locally of distant rocket launches.
Gary Hershorn, a photographer who specializes in images of the sun, moon and lightning in New York City — and captured last week’s solar eclipse — told us that he’s going to be up and watching for the rocket. “I’ve tried but never actually seen one the way they say you can. However, there have been two SpaceX Starlink launches that were visible from around here that launched from Florida,” he shared.