Watch a Moon launch in our sky tonight

 
     With the ending of the Space Shuttle program we have all probably thought that our space program was winding down.  While manned flights from our country have ended for the time being NASA still has space missions being launched.  Having seen a Shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral in the 1990's I am still awed at the ability to be able to launch a huge vehicle into orbit at 17,500 mph.
    For those of us in our area we now have a closer look at rocket launches with some of the launches happening on the Eastern Shore at Wallops Island.  Tonight we have the opportunity to possibly see the launch of a rocket to moon at 11:27 pm.  If the skies are clear, at it looks good now, we might be able to see the rocket launch from our area.  Best viewing would be in an area without trees on the horizon and looking to the southeast sky.  To learn more about the launch click here.  There will be a webcast for those who want to see the Wallops launch live.

P.S.
   Todays launch maybe the first step toward our communications being through lasers rather than fiber optics.  Some hard technical issues have to be worked out to make this happen but the advantages of laser communications are too big not to begin resolving the issues.