NASA plans to launch rockets into Alaska's northern lights, aiming to map hidden electric currents and enhance our understanding of space weather.

NASA launched two sounding rockets from Alaska. The goal was to study auroras in detail. Scientists focused on rare black auroras. These appear as dark shapes inside glowing northern lights. The rockets carried instruments directly into the auroras.

NASA launched two sounding rocket missions from Alaska to measure auroral electrical currents and study geomagnetic storm impacts on Earth’s upper atmosphere and space-based systems.

NASA has pulled off a high-flying aurora investigation, launching three rockets into the glowing northern lights over Alaska. One mission targeted mysterious dark patches called black auroras, while the twin GNEISS rockets created a 3D scan of the aurora’s electrical currents.

NASA launched a sounding rocket from Alaska in the predawn hours of February 9, 2026, as part of a campaign to investigate one of the most puzzling features of the northern lights: the black aurora. While most aurora research focuses on the shimmering green and purple curtains that draw tourists to high latitudes,