Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A look back at the sounding rocket launches at Wallops Flight Facility during the March 1970 solar eclipse.
Music: "Sun Age," Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Ryan Fitzgibbons (eMITS/AMA): Editor
Video description:
0:00 Vintage graphic that says "Goddard Space Flight Center presents Spaceback: Sounding Rockets." All following footage is vintage.
0:01 A crowd gathered outside labeled March 1970.
0:05 A solar eclipse, with a pink ring surrounding a dark disk, the Moon.
0:12 People standing on top of a squat white building among satellite dishes.
0:14 People push a cart with part of a sounding rocket.
0:20 The sounding rocket on a launcher, pointed up at an angle.
0:22 Panning across a picture of a different sounding rocket.
0:24 Another sounding rocket moving into launch position.
0:29 Montage of people in white lab coats work on sounding rockets.
0:34 Montage of people working in a small room filled with switches and dials.
0:40 Antennas against the sky.
0:43 People in a control room.
0:46 Close-up of a siren spinning against the sky.
0:48 A hand pushes a button on a control panel.
0:49 A sounding rocket launches.
0:51 A second sounding rocket launches.
0:53 A third, while a camera operator in the foreground pans to follow it.
0:54 A fourth.
0:57 A scientist studies a readout.
0:59 A graph with waves on a screen.
1:00 The control room.
1:01 The solar eclipse.
1:03 A satellite dish.
1:04 Someone looking up at the Sun.
1:06 Eleven more sounding rocket launches with the sky getting darker.
1:21 Modern sounding rocket launch footage. Text reads "In April 2024, Wallops launched 3 sounding rockets during the solar eclipse to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our atmosphere."
1:23 A modern control room.
1:25 A sounding rocket flying against the sky.
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14278. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14278. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines.
A look back at the sounding rocket launches at Wallops Flight Facility during the March 1970 solar eclipse.
Music: "Sun Age," Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Ryan Fitzgibbons (eMITS/AMA): Editor
Video description:
0:00 Vintage graphic that says "Goddard Space Flight Center presents Spaceback: Sounding Rockets." All following footage is vintage.
0:01 A crowd gathered outside labeled March 1970.
0:05 A solar eclipse, with a pink ring surrounding a dark disk, the Moon.
0:12 People standing on top of a squat white building among satellite dishes.
0:14 People push a cart with part of a sounding rocket.
0:20 The sounding rocket on a launcher, pointed up at an angle.
0:22 Panning across a picture of a different sounding rocket.
0:24 Another sounding rocket moving into launch position.
0:29 Montage of people in white lab coats work on sounding rockets.
0:34 Montage of people working in a small room filled with switches and dials.
0:40 Antennas against the sky.
0:43 People in a control room.
0:46 Close-up of a siren spinning against the sky.
0:48 A hand pushes a button on a control panel.
0:49 A sounding rocket launches.
0:51 A second sounding rocket launches.
0:53 A third, while a camera operator in the foreground pans to follow it.
0:54 A fourth.
0:57 A scientist studies a readout.
0:59 A graph with waves on a screen.
1:00 The control room.
1:01 The solar eclipse.
1:03 A satellite dish.
1:04 Someone looking up at the Sun.
1:06 Eleven more sounding rocket launches with the sky getting darker.
1:21 Modern sounding rocket launch footage. Text reads "In April 2024, Wallops launched 3 sounding rockets during the solar eclipse to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our atmosphere."
1:23 A modern control room.
1:25 A sounding rocket flying against the sky.
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14278. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14278. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines.
