A bill moving through the Virginia General Assembly could provide as much as $20 million to the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority (VCSFA) for improvements at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at Wallops Island, Va.
The bill, formally an amendment to a biennial appropriations bill signed into law in 2016, is for the construction of additional facilities in support of both commercial space flight and unmanned systems activities. This could potentially include upgrades like a new payload processing facility and hangars, according to a staffer for the Virginia Senate Finance Committee. The money was originally appropriated to Virginia Beach for light rail expansion, but voters there turned down a referendum and the money was returned to the commonwealth.
The amendment has passed both chambers of the General Assembly, including the Senate on Thursday, and is now in conference, according to the staffer. The amendment is sponsored by Sen. Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach), who did not return a request for comment on Friday.
MARS, located at NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility, hosts mostly Orbital ATK [OA] launches, specifically Antares and sometimes Minotaur. MARS has two launch pads, one mid-class pad that can service payloads up to 15,400 pounds to low earth orbit (LEO) with Antares. The small-class pad can service payloads of 8,400 pounds to LEO. MARS is licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) for launches to orbital trajectories.
The staffer said the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) had scheduled a launch from MARS. The Air Force on December 8 awarded Orbital ATK $29.2 million for the NROL-111 mission to launch on a Minotaur I rocket as part of the Orbital/Suborbital Program 3 (OSP-3) Lane 1 capability. The launch date is yet to be determined by the contractor, which didn’t return a request for comment by press time Friday. Spaceflightnow.com reported in January the NROL-111 will take place at MARS, which would represent the first NRO launch from MARS. Air Force spokeswoman Alicia Garges said Orbital ATK has proposed launching NROL-111 from Wallops Island.
A study is in the works to determine the feasibility of landing rockets either at MARS or NASA Wallops, according to a key official. VCSFA Executive Director Dale Nash said last Wednesday at an industry conference that a new master environmental impact statement (EIS) is coming out and that he believes it includes reusable rockets flying back to the launch pad. There are additional launch pad locations within the master EIS, he said.
The question, Nash said, is whether the reusable rockets “come off” a pad at MARS or one of NASA Wallops’ pads. Nash’s remarks came at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) conference in Washington.