WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (AP) — NASA says it will investigate an anomaly detected during the launch of a sounding rocket that prematurely ended its flight.

The Terrier-Improved Malemute ended its flight about 19 seconds after it was launched at 4:36 a.m. Wednesday from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

A flight anomaly with the rocket’s second stage motor was detected by range controllers.

NASA says in a news release that the rocket flew to an altitude of 27,000 feet and then landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 1 mile downrange. The rocket splashed down in a hazard zone that had been cleared before the launch. There were no injuries or property damage.

NASA had planned to test a deployment system for forming vapor clouds and other new suborbital rocket technologies.

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