NASA scrubs rocket launch from Wallops Island, tentatively reschedules for Sunday

NASA on Saturday evening scrubbed a planned rocket launch from its Wallops Island facility, in coastal Virginia, citing unfavorable weather conditions and pushing the planned launch back at least 24 hours to Sunday evening. 

The launch was postponed "due to upper level winds not being within the required limits for a safe launch," the space agency said in tweet. 

The agency had said in a press release that the launch was in pursuit of “a mission to explore energy transport in space using a NASA suborbital sounding rocket.”

The launch, when it occurs, “may provide a brief light show for residents of the eastern United States and Bermuda.”

The rocket’s launching process “includes the release of barium vapor that will form two green-violet clouds that may be visible for about 30 seconds,” the agency said; that material “will be released approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds to around 10 minutes after launch."