NASA Continues To Ignore RockOn! Launch

Keith's note: It has been 24 hours and virtually nothing has been released by NASA about the RockOn! rocket launch yesterday that carried a number of student experiments. When you go to the Wallops website it now says "A Terrier-Orion Sounding Rocket was successfully launched on 6/24/10. Stay tuned for information on the next launch from Wallops!". There is no (apparent) link to photos, press releases, videos, or any other information associated with the launch.

The last post on the Wallops Twitter (which is going into hibernation again) at 7:25 am EDT yesterday says "We will post a launch pic later this morning. Thanks for that suggestion." The Wallops YouTube page has one video - but it was posted a year ago. The Wallops Facebook page has a video but you have to go through the process of being approved as a Facebook friend before you can see it. Nothing is apparently posted on the Wallops website.

According to project documentation, the following universities had payloads on this mission: Temple University, University of West Virginia, University of Louisiana University of Minnesota, University of Wyoming, University of Puerto Rico, University of Colorado at Boulder, Virginia Tech, University of Northern Colorado, and Colorado State University. Yet there is no evidence that NASA Wallops PAO or the NASA Education Office have lifted a finger to make public notice of this mission.

Given all of the other Summer of Innovation events that NASA is promoting it is rather baffling that NASA's Education office continues to ignore this mission - one where students focused their ideas and imagination on something that actually went into space. I know that they are now aware of this mission. As such this continued omission of mention of the event is no longer an oversight. It is now deliberate.

- Yet Another Stealth Launch at Wallops (Update), earlier post
- Wallops Flight Facility, NASA's hidden launch shop, CNet

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