Black Aurora Rocket Instrument Testing at NASA Goddard

NASA’s Black and Diffuse Aurora Science Surveyor sounding rocket mission has completed its testing campaign at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, ahead of its launch.

Sounding rocket missions like this one are suborbital rockets that fly scientific instruments into near-Earth space for short, approximately 15-minute flights. The mission will study so-called “black auroras,” dark patches and stripes that appear within an aurora. Previous research has hinted that they may be formed by electrons going upward escaping back out into space (rather than the absence of any electrons). The visible aurora is formed by an incoming downward stream of electrons. Scientists want to solve the puzzle as to why these patches and stripes form within the visible aurora.

From Goddard, the instruments were delivered to Wallops Flight Facility, where they – along with the entire rocket payload – will be shipped to the Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the team aims to fly their rocket through black aurora. Onboard instruments will survey the electron populations as they fly through them to understand how and why these black patches and stripes form within the visible aurora. The mission is scheduled for launch no earlier than February 2026.