A U.S. Navy rocket team deliberately vaporized metal high above the Pacific Ocean this February, creating a plasma field in the upper atmosphere to study how that energy converts and behaves in space, and Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme

A U.S. Navy rocket team deliberately vaporized metal high above the Pacific Ocean this February…

…The rocket itself, named Oriole IV, stacked four separate rocket motors, known as Talos, Terrier, Oriole, and Nihka, to carry two scientific payloads to an altitude of roughly 539 kilometers (335 miles), high enough to reach the same region of space where many orbiting satellites operate. Once there, the vehicle detonated a directional explosive called a shape charge to vaporize several pounds of barium metal, creating an artificial plasma field, essentially a cloud of electrically charged particles, while a second payload deployed instruments to measure the electromagnetic effects that plasma field produced. The purpose behind that carefully engineered explosion had not been widely publicized before this report, and Jay Breuer, senior test director in the detachment’s suborbital vehicles division, explained that the mission sought to validate physics theories about plasma energy conversion that had previously only been tested in laboratory conditions, work he said could eventually translate into real capabilities for the fleet.