NASA launches five rockets in study Wispy luminous clouds light up the night sky over Wallops Island, Virginia early in the morning of March 27. Credit: NASA/Wallops WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., March 27 (UPI) -- NASA says it successfully launched five rockets from Virginia early Tuesday as part of a study of the upper level jet stream on the edge of space. The first rocket was launched from its Wallops Flight Facility at 4:58 a.m. EDT and four subsequent rockets were launched in succession at 80-second intervals, the space agency reported. Each rocket released a tracer chemical at a different altitude to create milky white clouds scientists will use to study the atmospheric flow of the jet stream. The jet stream, 65 miles above Earth's surface, typically courses at speeds of 200 mph to well over 300 mph and create rapid transport of air masses and weather systems from Earth's mid latitudes to the polar regions. The jet stream is located in the same region where strong electrical currents occur in the ionosphere that can adversely affect satellite and radio communications, NASA said. The clouds created by the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment were reported as being visible from as far south as Wilmington, N.C.; west to Charlestown, W. Va.; and north to Buffalo, N.Y.