Sometime after 8 o'clock Thursday night, the Air Force hopes to put five small satellites into orbit with a rare launch from Virginia's Eastern Shore. If skies clear, the rocket's climb to orbit could be visible throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

The U.S. Air Force TacSat-3 satellite is set for liftoff sometime between 8 and 11 p.m. from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. It will ride atop a four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket.

A launch attempt Tuesday night was scrubbed because of clouds and a threat of rain. Thursday night's Wallops forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a slight chance of a thunderstorm.

If successful, this would be only the third launch to orbit from Wallops, which Maryland and Virginia officials hope will become a much busier spaceport for both commercial and government satellites.

The first Minotaur launch from Wallops Island, in December 2007, was a daylight spectacular visible from Baltimore. The second, in April 2007, was obscured by clouds. A 1995 attempt to reach orbit from Wallops using a commercial Conestoga rocket ended in a spectacular failure 46 seconds after liftoff.

In addition to the TacSat-3 military imaging and communications experiments, the rocket will carry a small NASA biomedical experiment called PharmaSat, and three 2-pound "pico-satellites" built by university and private customers.

One of the three is HawkSat-1, the first satellite ever designed, built and launched entirely on the Eastern Shore. Its owner is Hawk Institute for Space Sciences in Pocomoke City.

If the attempt goes well, it could be visible to millions of people from northern Florida to southern Maine, and as far west as eastern Kentucky, astronomer Joe Rao said.

Observers in Maryland will need clear skies and an unobstructed view of the southeastern horizon.

The countdown and launch will be webcast at http:sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast/

Live webcasts typically lag behind events by 10 or 15 seconds. Updates are also available via Twitter at twitter.com/NASA_Wallops and via telephone at 757-824-2050.