Four Westminster High School students are on Wallops Island, Virginia this week to document a NASA experiment looking at winter snowstorms along the eastern seaboard.

The students and their advisors left Colorado on Tuesday and plan to send updates to the community over the course of the week. The high school’s Aerospace and Video production CTE pathway’s students have been documenting the research effort while also gathering their own science data.

The NASA P-3 Orion aircraft that students are working with  is capable of flying up to 14 hours at altitudes of up to 28,000 feet.  There is a possibility that at least some of the WHS students will be aboard the plane during the mission.

While students in Virginia document the flight of the P-3, a second plane, the ER-2 High-Altitude, will be taking off from Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia to fly the same route. Scientists will then compare the data from the two aircraft.

The documentary film produced by the students will be shown at the Westminster Alamo Drafthouse Theater on Wednesday, May 10.

We will update the story during the week.