These are photos of a rocket from NASA’s GREECE mission blasting off into the beautiful Aurora Borealis over Venetie, Alaska earlier this week. I wish I could be that rocket.
The GREECE mission, or Ground-to-Rocket Electrodynamics Electron Correlative Experiment, studies how structures form in an aurora. The sounding rocket was supposed to launch in February, but it was waiting for the most perfect aurora to form first. On Monday, it happened. Safe to say the photos don’t do it justice. [NASA Flickr]