NASA’s Triple Rocket Launch for APEP Mission During Solar Eclipse

Current Context: NASA launched three sounding rockets as part of the Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

• The mission aimed to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere, specifically the ionosphere, is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet due to a solar eclipse.
• The APEP sounding rockets were launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
• These rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse.
• They were refurbished with new instrumentation for the April 2024 launch.
• The mission was led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.
• The rockets were launched at three different times: 45 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse.
• These intervals were important to collect data on how the Sun’s sudden disappearance affects the ionosphere, creating disturbances that have the potential to interfere with our communications.
• The ionosphere is a region of Earth’s atmosphere that is between 55 to 310 miles (90 to 500 kilometers) above the ground.

Question:

Q.1 Who led the Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission?
a. Elon Musk
b. Jeff Bezos
c. Richard Branson
d. Aroh Barjatya