WALLOPS — Nearly two months after a failed launch of a major rocket from Wallops Island, NASA’s flight facility on the Virginia shore will be getting a significant fiscal shot in the arm with the approval this month of $20 million in federal funding for rehabilitation and restoration.
U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) last week announced the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 includes $20 million for NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility to help repair the damage following the failed launch of an Antares rocket that exploded just after liftoff in late October. The legislation has passed both the Senate and House of Representatives and is now headed to the White House to be signed into law by the president.
On Oct. 28, Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) briefly went up as planned, but the mission was aborted just seconds after liftoff when problems with the launch were detected.
The Antares was purposely blown up after problems were detected with the launch and the rocket fell back to the launch pad causing a second explosion. The Antares, a 131-foot rocket carrying 5,000 pounds of cargo including food, instruments and other supplies to the ISS, was unmanned and no casualties were reported, but the aborted mission did extensive damage to Wallops and set back an ambitious launch program from the flight facility just as it was gaining significant momentum.
With the injection of roughly $20 million in federal funding, Wallops, which has become a significant economic partner for Worcester and much of the Lower Shore, will be getting back on track.
“As the nation’s only NASA-owned launch site, the Wallops Island Flight Facility is a centerpiece of our space and science infrastructure,” said Mikulski. “In Maryland, science is jobs. Scientific innovation creates jobs and economic growth through innovative products and new businesses. At Space Port Wallops, we see a close partnership between federal and state agencies along with the private sector working together to create jobs today and jobs tomorrow.”
The Wallops Island Flight Facility supports 1,525 high-tech jobs on the Eastern Shore, many concentrated in and around the Lower Shore in Worcester and Somerset. More specifically, the Antares rocket launch program brings an estimated $250 million in economic development in the form of new goods, services and contracts for small businesses. Just last week at an economic summit in Ocean City, Wallops was identified as a potential alternative economic engine for Worcester to go along with tourism, agriculture and the growing medical industry.
Following the explosion in October, Orbital Sciences determined a problem with a turbo-pump in one of the Antares’ main engines caused the failure and already Orbital has announced the use of those engines will be discontinued. The private-sector company is now accelerating the implementation of a new propulsion system for the Antares and hopes to stay on its planned launch schedule from Wallops to the ISS throughout the next year.
In addition, Orbital expects repairs to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launch complex at Wallops to be undertaken quickly, allowing launch operations to continue with the upgraded Antares in 2016. Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract to fly cargo to the space station and last fall’s failed launch would have been the third in a series of nine planned for Wallops. The influx of $20 million in federal funding for the facility is expected to help restore the damage.