Rocket headed to International Space Station could be visible Tuesday from Outer Banks

The Cygnus cargo ship is the S.S. Ellison Onizuka, named for the first Asian-American selected as an astronaut. [courtesy NASA's Wallops Flight Facility/Facebook]

A resupply mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch Tuesday evening from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia Eastern Shore , and you should be able to see the rocket’s exhaust from the Outer Banks and eastern North Carolina.

Northrop Grumman says the Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus spacecraft is set to launch Aug. 10 at 5:56 p.m. from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport near Chincoteague.

The rocket’s exhaust plume should be visible traveling from northeast to southeast off Carova, Corolla and Duck from 30 to 60 seconds after launch, from Southern Shores to Avon between 60 and 90 seconds and then Buxton to Ocracoke from 90 to 120 seconds.

The Cygnus is scheduled to rendezvous with the Space Station on Aug. 12. during the 16th commercial resupply mission launched by Northrop Grumman.

Live coverage of the Antares launch and NG-16 berthing with the station will be available on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

Online streams run between 20 and 30 seconds behind real-time, so keep that in mind if you plan to watch the coverage and then try and spot the rocket.

The NG-16 Cygnus spacecraft is named after former astronaut Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian-American astronaut.

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Sam Walker was news director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, Big 94.5 WCMS and Z 92.3 from August 2011 to March 2022.