In 1993, NASA's IV&V Program was established at this site as part of an agency-wide strategy to achieve the highest possible levels of safety and cost-effectiveness for mission-critical software. The program, Independent Verification and Validation, was founded under the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance as a direct result of recommendations by the National Research Council and the report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. The NIKE-ORION sounding rocket here was launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast. Sounding rockets are sub-orbital rockets that carry payloads above Earth's atmosphere for 15 minutes. This rocket has two solid-fueled rocket motors and a payload section, enabling it to reach altitudes between 90 kilometers and 190 kilometers while carrying payloads between 65 kilograms and 204 kilograms. Experiments using sounding rockets have provided information on the upper atmosphere, the Sun, stars, galaxies, and other planets. The rocket was donated by the Wallops Flight Facility to the NASA IV&V facility in 2003.