On this day in space: Jan. 17, 1985: Final Aerobee sounding rocket launched

On Jan. 17, 1985, the United States launched its 1,037th and final Aerobee rocket.

An Aerobee suborbital sounding rocket of the type designed to study Earth's atmosphere. (Image credit: NMMSH)

The last Aerobee rocket to launch was a variation called Aerobee 150, and it lifted off from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

This rocket stood about 30 feet tall and could fly to an altitude of 170 miles with payloads weighing up to 150 pounds. This rocket's payload was a device designed to observe airglow, or the constant dim glow of Earth's atmosphere.

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Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.

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