Watch NASA rocket launch live from the NT here

The launch, brought forward by a day due to expected bad weather later in the week, is part of a two-stage experiment looking at the Alpha Centauri constellation, in Australia better known as the Southern Cross pointers.

The rocket, DEUCE (Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum) will blast off from the launch site on the Dhupuma Plateau near Nhulunbuy, on local Indigenous Yolngu country.

Eric Roper, Mission Manager from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA, said DEUCE, together with the SISTINE rocket that was launched in Arnhem Land last week, would look at the higher and the lower end of the so-far unstudied ultraviolet light spectrum of Alpha Centauri.

"This experiment has never been done before. We're very excited to be able to launch these science missions from the Arnhem Space Centre as we can't see the targets from the United States."

Mr Roper, who travelled to Australia with a contingent of more than 70 NASA specialists, said today's mission would carry science instruments to an altitude of about 250km before descending by parachute and landing southwest of the launch site.

"The launch will enable scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder to explore the environment and model stars similar and smaller than our sun, as well as understand their effects on providing conducive or hostile environment, determining its ability to support life as we know it."

DEUCE is set for blast-off at 8.27pm (ACST) - the time when Alpha Centauri is 'in the right position in the sky'.

"The launch is set for a time when the scientific target will be high enough in the sky so our measurements are not disrupted by the atmosphere and the sun and the moon are not in the sky," Mr Roper said.

Eight hours prior to the launch, NASA will be sending a weather balloon to a high altitude of about 150,000 feet, followed by a mid-altitude balloon to 60,000 feet two hours before the launch.

"One hour and 15 minutes out from the launch we will be sending balloons in 15 minute intervals. They will allow us to exactly know what the weather is doing - especially if there are winds at high altitude," Mr Roper said.

Like the two previous rocket launches, tonight's event could be delayed by minutes, hours or even days if the weather doesn't play along.

"The weather forecast for our original launch date on Tuesday changed and made it marginal. Monday is now our best bet."

While Mr Roper is currently working on eleven other rocket missions, including four in Norway, DEUCE, the rocket, is also not new to the game.

"We have launched this very rocket a few times before. The last times it looked at different targets in the Northern Hemisphere.

"The recovered parts are refurbished and used again.

"It is a design that has been custom built to suit what the scientists need, and we take it where the science is."

DEUCE is equipped with a star tracker system that will allow the equipment to look at the correct stars.

"When the shutter door opens, we don't want them to get lost in space, obviously. The star tracker will do calculations that will point the equipment in the correct direction and point it towards the stars we want to look at."

Also kitted out with a 'phone home system', DEUCE will be tracked on its entire journey to space and back to earth.

"The trackers allow us to know exactly where it is and where it has landed, so every single part can be retrieved."

While NASA is looking forward to retrieving the payload - hopefully packed with new scientific insights - a highlight for the Nhulunbuy region will be the tail fin.

"When we first brought the rockets out here, we invited local school groups and students to come and have a look," Mr Roper said.

"Some of them got to sign the tail fin."

Among those who signed the fin were students from a homelands college in Gunyangara near Nhulunbuy.

Coincidentally the school is named Dhupuma Barker, with the local Yolngu word 'dhupuma' meaning "Look Up, Look Beyond".

Students from Dhupuma Barker were also involved in the official opening of the Arnhem Space Centre in October 2021, signing a traditional song for the Equatorial Launch Australia and NASA teams.

The signed fin, together with the nose cone of the first rocket launched from the Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) owned Arnhem Space Centre are set to stay in Nhulunbuy on display at what locals hope will become a space museum.

Maxim King, NASA's Operations Manager, said launching from the Arnhem Space Center was a 'great accomplishment'.

"It's hard to explain how much work went into this project," he said.

Mr King, who designed the launcher nine years ago, said it was 'exciting and satisfying' to see the hard work come to fruition.

"It was a serious challenge to get everything into place and pull it all off.

"Launching from this part of Australia was the most challenging launch for us (NASA) in the world."

Mr King said the remoteness of the Arnhem Space Centre - about 13 hours drive to the nearest major centre, Darwin, including 720km of dirt road - was just one of the obstacles.

"Covid happened in the middle of our planning, which was also a major challenge, but mainly the logistics of getting everything here was the biggest problem.

"We had a piece of equipment break and being so far from home, we had to fly it in on a jet for hundreds of thousands of dollars."

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But despite the challenges, Mr King said the Australian launches were a 'great experience' for him and his team.

"We're excited to be able to provide a great service to the science community to do such crucial research," he said. "But we're also very happy that what we've achieved here may potentially be a leg for the local town of Nhulunbuy to stand on, with new economic opportunities for the town that needs all the help it can get."

Equatorial Launch Australia Site Construction Manager Paul Robe, and his wife Jo Brownlee, joined this sentiment.

"What we're doing here is not just about launching a rocket," Mr Robe said.

"It's what happens after the launches.

"We get a thrill out of the economic development opportunities that will extend past Rio Tinto's mine closure."

Ms Brownlee, ELA's Emergency Manager, said she was hopeful the successful NASA launches would lead to 'sustainable business growth for the local community'.

"Out here at the Arnhem Space Centre we've created something out of nothing - and even for NASA it is a pinnacle of their careers.

"While there is still very little infrastructure out here, it is amazing what can be achieved in a place as isolated and remote as this.

"Hopefully this will put the town in a good position for the future."

Klaus Helms, CEO of the local Gumatj Clan, said the Arnhem Space Centre was part of the bigger picture he had for the local community and especially for the Indigenous people of the land the rockets were launched from.

"We started from nothing," he said. "Now we have the assets and we have to get smart how we use them. When mining leaves, the economy gets hit. We've been there before when the refinery closed.

"We must look at opportunities to create jobs that will stay when Rio closes so our local people don't have to rely on welfare.

"Horticulture, agriculture, tourism and now space are all part of the plan to provide employment for the region post-Rio."

Like the history-defining June 26 launch - NASA's first ever launch from a commercial space port on Australian soil - tonight's launch will be live streamed.

Watch live above from 7.57pm (ACST) or here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l-J5NTUEtJk