The 46-foot NASA rocket launched into the Aurora Borealis carried instruments developed by a 60-member team of scientists and engineers, including Marc Lessard of the University of New Hampshire and Kristina Lynch of Dartmouth College, who attended the launch at the Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Feb. 18, 2012. Several of the instruments carried on the rocket were developed at UNH and Dartmouth by engineers, scientists and students. NH EPSCoR, with funding from the National Science Foundation, established testing facilities at the UNH Space Science Center and the Lynch Rocket Lab at Dartmouth to test instruments used in this NASA mission and others.

More information:

UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space:

UNH Scientists Launch NASA Rocket Into Aurora

Dartmouth Now:

Rocket Reaches into the Northern Lights to Illuminate Aurora Activity

Watch:

MSNBC video

Read more about Kristina Lynch and EPSCoR's role in the rocket lab at Dartmouth College:

Space Science