Aug. 20 (UPI) -- NASA is planning to launch TOMEX+ rocket mission to study the turbulence where Earth's atmosphere ends and outer space begins sometime over the next two weeks.
The earliest the agency expects to launch the three sounding rockets is Saturday, with the launch window closing Sept. 3, NASA announced Wednesday. The launch window has been repeatedly pushed back, this time due to high sea states in the rocket recovery area from Hurricane Erin.
Sounding rockets are those that can be aimed to reach the Earth's mesopause, an area of the atmosphere that's too high for weather balloons and too low for traditional satellites to reach.
The mesosphere is the coldest layer of Earth's atmosphere and is the place where weather patterns on the planet can transfer energy into space, creating turbulence that can affect satellites.
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