Wallops Flight Facility and highway bridge to Chincoteague Island
(the facility is on the mainland, not Wallops Island itself) Source: US Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture Imagery Program
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Wallops Flight Facility, on the Eastern Shore in Accomack County near Chicoteague, was developed as a rocket testing site at the end of World War Two, to support the research at what is now Langley Research Center in Hampton. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tested the aerodynamics of different rockets, including the escape system and heat shield for Mercury space flight capsules.1
Under NASA today, it is focused on enabling low-cost aerospace-based science and technology research. Nearly all launches are suborbital, including weather "sounding" rockets that release brightly-colored chemicals at high elevation to reveal the pattern of wind currents near the edge of space. Infrastructure at Wallops is sufficient to launch satellites to the nternational Space Station over 200 miles above the earth, but too small to support the large rockets required to put satellites into geosynchronous orbit or to go to the moon/Mars. In 1995, the Virginia General Assembly (after proposals were developed by Old Dominion University's engineering program) created the Virginia Space Flight Center. The state is trying to expand Wallops into a commercial spaceport, and simultaneously stimulate economic development in Accomack County. The Virginia Space Flight Center initially targeted the "smallsat" business (satellites in low-earth orbits for communications and remote-sensing), plus reusable launch vehicles for passenger and cargo transportation into space. It sought to become the launch site for VentureStar, a now-cancelled replacement for the space shuttle.2 In 2004, Virginia put two members from Maryland on the board of the Virginia Space Flight Center and named the launch site the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS). Wallops is located close to the border with Maryland, but partnering with Maryland was more than just a "we're neighbors" decision. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland manages the Federal operations at Wallops Island, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has managed missions to Pluto, and the Maryland delegation is quite influential in shaping funding and policy for NASA. Federal policy on privatizing portions of NASA (such as the LANDSAT imaging satellites) and stimulating commercial launch capacity has been erratic. Cancellation of the space shuttle has increased opportunities for commercial space flights to supply the International Space Station. Orbital Sciences Corporation, based in Virginia near Dulles airport, has won nearly $2 billion in Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contracts with NASA, and will launch Cygnus spacecraft on Taurus II rockets from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.3 Competition for the commercial spaceflight business is intense. New Mexico has already developed "Spaceport America" near the White Sands Missile Range, using state funding to attract companies that intend to provide private-sector launches for passengers as well as cargo. Virgin Galactic testing of a vehicle and launch system for space tourism is far advanced, and the company has committed to launches from New Mexico. The California Spaceport is operational at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Space Florida is located at Cape Canaveral, where Space X will launch resupply missions to the International pace Station and Boeing has leased an old space shuttle "orbiter bay." The Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska also has a long tradition of launching satellites into orbit. The Wallops Flight Facility started launching rockets in 1945, but during the race to the moon it was was surpassed by Kennedy Space Center. To stimulate the launch business now, Virginia has "provided $26 million in bond financing to build the launch pad, of which Orbital has pledged to repay about $19 million."4 A 2011 report to the Virginia Department of Transportation assessed the competition from Florida, New Mexico, California, and Alaska. It concluded that New Mexico was targeting a different market (space tourism), and "Florida is Virginia’s most direct competitor."5
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 launch of suborbital rocket from Wallops Island Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Rocket Report (Third Quarter, 2010) |
