Jack Kennedy

By Jack Kennedy

“A proposal by NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to support commercial launches of human spaceflight missions from Virginia’s Eastern Shore poses a ‘direct threat’ to the economy and workforce of Florida,” roared late-September articles in Florida Today and the Orlando Sentinel, announcing an assault on the ambition of making Virginia’s commercial spaceport more capable.

During this past summer, NASA sought public input on an environmental study relating to land-use changes at the Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County. The environmental impact study seeks to address the possibility of human space flight requirements at the commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

The petulant Space Florida aerospace business interest group, funded by the Florida Legislature, used the NASA Wallops environmental impact study to engage in a business attack on Virginia’s fledgling pro-commercial spaceport launch business. Using an environmental study to advance Florida civil space business is, in my personal judgment, an ethically lacking business practice or, worse, a crude attempt to place a fix against launch market competition.

Space Florida appears worried that Virginia is emerging as a business competitor and in that worry is losing any sense of fair play. The Florida space business leaders have never accepted that Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. selected Virginia over Florida three years ago to launch cargo to the International Space Station beginning early next year.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Space Florida seeks to employ a federal environmental regulatory scheme public hearing mechanism to snipe at the insightful spaceport investments made by the Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Bob McDonnell. Space Florida appears to have been on a mission of business sabotage, not environmental impact concern.

Virginia would never use an environmental study to seek to undermine the recently announced $38 billion American taxpayer-funded civil space rocket booster to launch from Florida’s coast. The Space Florida effort is an abuse of federal environmental law process. Worse still, by seeking to deprive Virginia of space business investment and jobs, Space Florida makes clear its desire to establish a monopolistic space launch practice, thereby increasing costs. America needs business competition — now more than ever.

It is, nonetheless, essential that the members of the Virginia congressional delegation take notice, especially Rep. Frank Wolf, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on space; Rep. Eric Cantor, the House majority leader; and Sen. Mark Warner, a member of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on space. Space Florida’s efforts to inflict Virginia with a “poison pill” merits situational awareness, if not private rebuke, by our federal leaders.

It is wrong for Space Florida to gain billions of dollars in federal civil space contracts while begrudging Virginia’s right to secure commercial space launch jobs for the Eastern Shore facilities. It is wrong for Florida to seek hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance its space launch facilities while seeking to deny Virginia any small measure of opportunity.

The Florida action has brought due attention to the potential of Virginia’s spaceport to field and launch human space flights from Wallops Island. After all, Florida is the undisputed expert in human space launch activities. In that sense, the Florida verbal attack on Virginia’s spaceport may be a compliment. The attack is certainly worthy of review by all those in Virginia now studying the future governance and direction of “the little spaceport that could.”

The space business bottom line is for Virginia’s governor and its congressional delegation to advance NASA’s commercial crew budget in the upcoming federal budget to the Senate appropriation numbers $300 million to $500 million.

Virginia will celebrate competition for the future with healthy respect for other aerospace competitors. We all win when human space access costs decline, and decline again, through open-market competition. Commercialization of space launch and pad facilities will bring more opportunities forward in both Virginia and Florida.

• $249,378 to the New Mexico Space Port Authority’s Spaceport America to construct a mobile structure to prepare larger rockets before launch;
• $125,000 to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport to improve security and remote monitoring;
• $125,000 to the East Kern Airport District’s Mojave Air and Space Port in California for a Supplemental Environmental Assessment.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the “funding will help pay for a roll-back vehicle integration building to prepare space vehicles for launch. The facility will accommodate the larger vehicles that are under development and also be on a rail system that can be rolled back from the vehicle to help maintain dimensional stability.”

The grants were made under an FAA program that funds infrastructure improvements at the nation’s licensed spaceports.

Pad OA at Wallops Island. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)

Jack Kennedy informs me that there’s a move afoot in the Virginia Legislature to direct tax dollars generated by commercial human space entities in the state to support the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and development of the Wallops Island spaceport. The provision in Senate Bill 1447 reads:

Income tax paid by commercial space flight entities.

Beginning July 1, 2011, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the net revenue generated by the corporate income taxes paid by corporations that engage in commercial human spaceflights or commercial spaceflight training shall be transferred to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, established pursuant to Article 2 (2.2-2201 et seq.) of Chapter 22 of Title 2.2. The Tax Commissioner shall make a written certification to the Comptroller within 15 days of the close of each calendar quarter providing an estimate of the net revenue generated by the corporate income taxes paid by the corporations that engage in commercial human spaceflights or commercial spaceflight training in the calendar quarter. Not later than 30 days after the close of each quarter, the Comptroller shall transfer to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority an amount from the general fund that is equal to the estimate provided by the Tax Commissioner.

Below is the email that Kennedy sent out to supporters:

Friends and Associates:

It is my hope that you would have the time to help promote Senate Bill 1447: Tax revenues generated by commercial spaceflight; Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority measure. It has now been referred to members of the Virginia General Assembly Senate Finance Committee – following introduction Friday. Senator Wampler has worked with me in two sessions on this measure. Last year we sought to perfect the language as a state budget amendment. I deeply appreciate the Senator’s leap of faith in the promotion of a strong Virginia aerospace future.

1. The cost to state taxpayers nothing but may lead to significant dollars following to the spaceport if a Virginia corporation brokers sale of flights by private citizens from around-the-globe to fly on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the space station at the cost of an estimated $35 to $45 million per seat.

2. There are no specific commercial flights now scheduled; however, there could be a resumption of so-called “tourist” spaceflight participant contracts in 2013, sold by the Reston, Virginia-based Space Adventures, LLC. It has the potential of generating dollars for the spaceport in 2014 and beyond.

3. The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority could volunteer or be subsequently directed to use any significant monies subsequent to 2014, 2015 for human-rating the commercial spaceport for human spaceflight to orbit.

http://spaceports.blogspot.com/2010/12/nasa-revises-commercial-crew-to-leo.html

Pad OA at Wallops Island. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)

NASA PROGRAM UPDATE

NASA will unveil its new rocket integration facility at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 21.

The Horizontal Integration Facility will support medium class mission capabilities. The first customer to use the facility will be Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., with its Taurus II launch vehicle.

Orbital will be conducting missions for NASA under the agency’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project and Commercial Resupply Services program. Integration of the Taurus II at the facility will begin in February with launch expected later this year.

Participants in the ceremony:

- Sen. Barbara Mikulski
- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
- NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations William Gerstenmaier
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Director Rob Strain
- NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director William Wrobel
- Orbital Sciences Corp. Chairman and CEO David Thompson

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

VCSFA PRESS RELEASE

The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and Holly Grove Vineyards are pleased to announce  ‘Genesis’,  a new Virginia wine, with a very unique wine  label celebrating the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) and Virginia’s return to space.  Billie Reed, the Space Authority’s Executive Director will give ‘Genesis’ to his NASA hosts when he attends the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery in Florida, scheduled for November 1, 2010.

Jonathan Bess, the owner and vintner at Holly Grove Vineyards on Virginia’s Eastern Shore discussed this idea with Spaceport officials while attending a presentation by Bigelow Aerospace, another company investigating launching its rockets from MARS.

“I know Wallops is where our nation’s space program was started,” Bess said. “NASA Wallops and NASA Langley tested rockets and trained astronauts before Kennedy or Johnson Space Centers were created. I’m really excited about the Taurus II launches. This is going to have a positive impact here on the Shore and on our nation. I wanted to be a part of making history so I suggested a special wine label in celebration of America’s first space coast’s return to space!”

Jonathan is donating 10% of the proceeds from ‘Genesis’ to the scholarship fund at the Virginia Space Flight Academy, and is offering a challenge to other Virginia winemakers to develop a label celebrating Virginia’s return to space and to donate to the fund as well.  State Senator Ralph S. Northam (D – VA 6) praised the partnership, saying that “STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math) is needed to understand and succeed in medicine, technology, agriculture, aerospace, human services delivery and yes, winemaking.  I am very enthusiastic about Jonathan’s initiative.”

Delegate Lewis (D – VA 100) also supports the initiative, saying: “The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, its growth and success is a priority of mine, as it is generating hundreds of new, high quality jobs, bringing economic growth to our Eastern Shore, and will play a role in the new space tourism industry. MARS is one of four spaceports holding an FAA license to send rockets into orbit. The FAA has said that Virginia is the “most progressive state in the nation” when it comes to incentivizing the commercial space industry.”

Bob Marshall the former Executive Director and now a Member of the Space Flight Academy Board of Directors said “we are very grateful to Holly Grove Vineyards. We want to thank Jonathan and his family for their support for the Space Flight Academy. This is a unique and fun way to support our scholarship fund. We do hope other vineyards will join in and help. The MARS staff has been intimately involved with the Academy since it began. We are partners in educating young people about the excitement of space exploration and aerospace.”

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

Space technology leadership rests with Va. delegation
by Jack Kennedy
TriCities.com

Russia, China and India either have, or will have, vibrant human space launch capabilities by before the close of the next decade. The Russians and the Chinese will have multiple human to orbit capable space launch facilities by mid-decade now under construction.

If America is to continue as a leader is space technology, scientific research, and exploration, NASA needs a new and inspiring leadership role that abdicates the role of monopoly access provider to low earth orbit. NASA needs a strong commercial space launch sector regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. The Senate measure provides it while the House measure simply does not.

The two Virginia NASA facilities at Langley and Wallops fair much better with the Senate measure, as compared to the flawed House committee measure. Virginia’s commercial spaceport, co-located on the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, will stand ready to commence commercial cargo delivery to the International Space Station next year.

The thunderous roar of rockets lifting cargo to space from Virginia’s Eastern Shore next summer is symbolic of the many opportunities that are now exist, but only with final enactment of the Senate-passed bill provisions. Virginia can be a significant part of a NewSpace Age of commercial spaceflight to and from low earth orbit of cargo, and similarly, humans in this decade. The FAA recently authorized the permit for take-off and re-entry.

Read the full story.

Orbital Pushes ‘Cheap’ Taurus Rocket
DoD Buzz

Currently, most DoD launches are handled by the EELV program, not known for its low costs or lack of cost growth over the last five years. EELV launches cost around $250 million a pop. Orbital’s Pieczynski estimates his company can provide Taurus 2 launches for “quite a bit south of $100 million a launch.” He would not get more specific. There are around three DoD launches for payloads of 10,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds each year, Pieczynski said.

The EELV program uses Delta IV and Atlas V rockets developed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Like the Taurus 2 will, the Atlas 5 relies on a Russian rocket engine as its primary propulsion system. the Atlas 5 uses the RD-180; Taurus II will use the NK-33 engine, which Aerojet has modified and is now known as the AJ-26 engine.

For those who may worry about U.S. dependence on Russian-built rockets, Orbital’s man says there are 36 engines already in America, with another three dozen in Russia. “Once the supply gets down to a certain level,” he says American companies have the right to co-produce the engine here.

In addition to using a lower cost rocket, Orbital also believes its Wallops Island launch site in Virginia offers greater flexibility because there is no competition with other launches, and it can both loft payloads to the space station, as well as into orbits that appeal to the intelligence community and to the weather satellite community. “You can reach a lot more locations from Wallops than you can from the Cape,” Pieczynski told me.

Read the full story.

Read the full story.

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

Virginia Business has an interesting story on the commercial launch potential of Wallops Island in Virginia, which includes possible human launches aboard Atlas V by Bigelow Aerospace:

Over the next five years, the company will make eight launches of the Taurus II from Wallops, as part of a $1.9 billion contract Orbital has with NASA to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

The Orbital deal is nice, and there are even bigger prizes out there. The decades-long effort to let the private sector handle much of what NASA has traditionally done is gaining momentum. The Obama administration gave the idea a big push this year in its NASA budget proposal, which calls for outsourcing to private companies the delivery of supplies — and maybe some day crew members — to the space station.

That’s opening up the potential for huge economic gains for states ready to seize the chance, and Virginia is hoping the Taurus project is a sign of things to come. Florida and California are probably its toughest competition. Florida’s Cape Canaveral tried hard to win the Taurus launch deal, hoping to recoup some job losses as NASA winds down the Space Shuttle program.

Another company looking at Wallops is Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace. It’s designing the first privately owned space station that it hopes to launch four years from now. Customers most likely would be nations without space programs. Michael Gold, director of the company’s Washington office, has been to Wallops to explore the idea of using the Atlas V launch system — co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin….

“Potentially bringing human space flight to Virginia would be frankly the largest economic impact to hit the state in a generation,” says Gold. “We have a very strong interest in Wallops and utilizing it … and avoiding the red tape you might face in Florida.”

Bigelow hopes to launch its first space station in 2014, followed by a second in two years later. By the end of the decade, the number of support launches for these facilities would reach into the high 20s. This number would probably be more than Cape Canaveral could handle given its other launches. Bigelow, which wants to launch from the United States, is looking at flying on multiple vehicles from different launch sites.

The article also notes Virginia’s growing clout within the space industry:

Virginia’s space-related industry extends beyond Wallops and Orbital Sciences. Langley Research Center, NASA’s oldest field center, is based in Hampton. Reston-based International Launch Services in July helped put an EchoStar satellite into orbit from a launch site in Kazakhstan. Since 2001, Space Adventures, based in Vienna, has arranged for seven wealthy clients to visit the International Space Station by flying on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. And Northrop Grumman Corp., which will move its headquarters to Fairfax County next year, produces sensors for space-based missions, including the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and the Defense Support Program.

Virginia has put some effort into supporting a commercial space sector, anchored by NASA Wallops. In 2004, governors Bob Erlich of Maryland and Mark Warner of Virginia created the MARS partnership. And in recent years the General Assembly passed two laws to make the state more friendly to space transportation companies. The 2007 Virginia Space Liability and Immunity Act gives companies some legal shelter in the event of a mishap, and the Zero G Tax Act of 2008 provides an exemption to companies doing business in the state with plans to launch from MARS or to do spaceflight training.

Read the full story.

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

Here’s an interesting quote from Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski which was included in a press release issued after Gov. Martin O’Malley toured the Wallops Flight Facility on Monday.

“Wallops Island Flight Facility is home to American innovation. I fought to keep jobs at the Wallops Flight Facility and I will continue to fight to create the jobs of the future. Today we can see our investment in innovation is paying off, as Wallops becomes the Southwest Airlines of space: a lower cost, safer way to launch.”

The full press release after the break.

OFFICE OF MARYLAND GOV. MARTIN O’MALLEY
Press Release – Aug. 23, 2010

Governor Martin O’Malley today toured the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, one of the oldest launch sites in the world. NASA and other organizations at Wallops, including the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, employ approximately 1,800 people, including government, military and contractor personnel — nearly 700 of which are held by Marylanders. During his visit, Governor O’Malley toured NASA’s Range Control Center and the NASA and MARS rocket launch pads and observed the U.S. Navy Surface Combat Systems Center.

“Maryland’s space industry has been, in many ways, an unsung economic hero for our State, and it is an important part of our strategy for growing Maryland’s high-tech sector. Nearly $1.6 billion flow to Maryland businesses from NASA contracts each year, and nearly 55 cents of every dollar of Goddard Space Flight Center contract dollars are spent in our State,” said Governor O’Malley. “NASA alone employs 10,000 including contractors in our State, and thousands of additional Marylanders are employed in space enterprises related to work with NOAA, the US Geological Survey and many of our national security agencies which we are so fortunate to have in Maryland. Marylanders who work in our space industry are playing key roles in things ranging from helping us understand and combat global climate change, to bolstering our country’s national security. We are uniquely positioned to continue and expand our leadership in the space industry.”

“We appreciate the visit today by Governor O’Malley to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility,” said William Wrobel, director of Wallops. “The support provided by Maryland to NASA, academia, industry and other government agencies is integral in furthering our understanding of our planet and the universe in which we live.”

In June of this year, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center awarded the NASA Wallops Flight Facility Range Operations Contract to LJT & Associates, Inc., an engineering firm based in Columbia, Maryland. The contract runs for five years and is valued at approximately $117 Million. The company will provide support services to manage the Wallops Research Range operations and maintenance; training; command, control, and communications information; and computer systems services.

“Wallops Island Flight Facility is home to American innovation,” said U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski. “I fought to keep jobs at the Wallops Flight Facility and I will continue to fight to create the jobs of the future. Today we can see our investment in innovation is paying off, as Wallops becomes the Southwest Airlines of space: a lower cost, safer way to launch.”

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility, located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, was established in 1945 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as a center for aeronautic research. Wallops is now NASA’s principal facility for management and implementation of suborbital research programs. The research and responsibilities of Wallops Flight Facility are centered around the philosophy of providing a fast, low cost, highly flexible and safe response to meet the needs of the United States’ aerospace technology interests and science research.

Massive fuel tank arrives at Wallops
DelmarvaNow.com

A 162-foot-long, 56-wheeled vehicle transporting the largest tank of the fuel farm needed to launch Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Taurus II rocket arrived Monday at Wallops Island after a three-month journey from Mexico.

The empty 80,000 gallon liquid oxygen tank, which is 124 feet long and 13 feet in diameter and weighs 230,000 pounds, spent three months in transit from a manufacturing facility in Mexico City. The company that built the tank is headquartered in Pennsylvania.

The unusual vehicle also was the subject of a July 23 story in the Culpeper (Va.) Star-Exponent after it drove right through downtown Culpeper on Main Street to avoid traveling under overpasses and a railroad bridge on the Route 29 bypass.

Read the full story.

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

WMDT-47 News has an interesting story the shows the importance of Wallops Island in Virginia to the Maryland economy:

On Monday, Governor Martin O’Malley will tour the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, one of the oldest launch sites in the world. NASA and the other organizations at Wallops, including the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) employ approximately 1,800 civilian positions, including government and contractor jobs, 700 of which are held by Marylanders…

In June of this year, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center awarded the NASA Wallops Flight Facility Range Operations Contract to LJT & Associates, Inc., an engineering firm based in Columbia, Maryland. The contract runs for five years and is valued at approximately $117 Million. 

Wallops is located on the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. It is run by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

O’Malley will view a new launch complex that is being constructed for Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Taurus II rocket, which is set for its inaugural launch next year. The new booster will send cargo freighters to the International Space Station and also launch satellites.

Virginia officials are keen on making the coastal facility into a competitive commercial spaceport. They have been wooing Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas company that is planning to launch a private space station in 2014. Wallops is getting licensed for human space missions, although no definitive plans have been announced.

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

The Federal Aviation Administration has given its OK to a NASA plan to expand the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the Wallops Flight Facility for new commercial launches.

In an Aug. 3 ruling signed by FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Spaceflight George Nield, the agency concurred with an earlier NASA finding that the planned expansion at the Virginia facility “would not individually or cumulatively have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment, and therefore the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was not required.” The decision supports the issuance of licenses and experimental permits required for future launches.

The ruling helps pave the way for Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Taurus II rocket, which is being prepared for its inaugural flight in mid-2011. The vehicle will send Cygnus cargo freighters to the International Space Station. OSC also plans to use the new rocket to launch satellites.

The decision contains a detailed description of the expansion plans, which call for the launching of a “maximum of 18 orbital-class launch vehicles” from two launch pads and “the reentry of associated crew or cargo capsules.”

Under the Proposed Action in the EA [Environmental Assessment], NASA and MARS facilities would be upgraded to support up to and including medium large class suborbital and orbital expendable launch vehicle (ELV) launch action from WFF. NASA’s Preferred Alternative includes site improvements required to support launch operations (such as facility construction and infrastructure improvement); testing, fueling, and processing operations; up to two static fire tests per year; launch up to six orbital class vehicle per year from Pad 0-A; and the reentry of associated crew and cargo capsules. Implementation of NASA’s Preferred Alternative would result in a maximum of 18 orbital class vehicle launches from MARS Complex 0 (twelve existing launches from Pad 0-B and six additional launches from Pad 0-A).

Because the Taurus II would be the largest rocket to fly from the facility, officials used it as the “envelope launch vehicle” for the environmental assessment.

Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus Capsule and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s Dragon Capsule were evaluated as potential reentry vehicles, because they may carried by the Taurus II and Falcon 9, respectively.

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

New Va. Commercial Space Flight Authority operations director named
Delmarvanow.com

Retired U.S. Navy Cdr. Zigmond V. Leszczynski has been appointed director of operations for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

The authority owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at NASA Wallops Flight Facility.

Billie M. Reed, executive director of the VCSFA, made the announcement at the authority’s Board of Directors meeting at Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology headquarters in Herndon.

Leszczynski during his Navy career has played a key role in the development and implementation of Navy Space Operations processes. His experience includes deputy director of Space Forces for Joint Space Operations in two major exercises and the development of a simulation tool for NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Lab.

Read the full story.

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

Guest blogger Jack Kennedy, who edits the Spaceports blog, makes the case for Virginia’s Wallops Island to play a major role in NASA’s new commercial space policy in this op-ed piece, which ran in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on April 21. Kennedy is a former State Assemblyman who serves on the executive committee of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which governs the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. This essay is reprinted with the author’s permission.

________________________

By Jack Kennedy

Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell has been consistent in his vision to make Virginia’s commercial spaceport the best in the nation, most notably with his recent budget amendment to increase the operations budget for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority; he is to be commended.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is now being readied for commercial space launches to haul supplies and cargo to the International Space Station beginning next year, following the aging space shuttle’s retirement. The first launch of the yet-to-be-tested Taurus-2 booster with the Cygnus spacecraft will mark not only the beginning of a new era in Virginia but the dawn of the commercial space age in America.

The $1.9 billion NASA contract awarded to Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corp. to conduct several orbital spacecraft launches over the next five years is but a prelude to the future of space flight from Wallops Island, in Accomack County. The unique opportunity is bringing hundreds of new jobs to the commonwealth and a new breed of “space tourist” to the Delmarva Peninsula — and with them flow millions of dollars.

Orbital Sciences Corp. is a commercial space launch integrator with suppliers from the Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Holland, Germany, Japan, and Canada. Rocket engineers from the Ukraine will take up residence near Wallops Island soon to help the venture embark upon an international commercial space launch effort to the international space station from 2011 to 2015, perhaps to 2020 under President Obama’s space policy plan, yet to be adopted by Congress.

Recently, Mike Gold, a representative from Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, visited Wallops Island and suggested that the Virginia spaceport is a prime candidate for launch of Atlas V boosters to private space stations enabling microgravity international commercial research in orbit. The inflatable space stations would be owned by Robert Bigelow, a real estate tycoon, and NewSpace entrepreneur. Launches of the Atlas V may commence as soon as 2014; these multimillion-dollar launches too could originate from Wallops Island.

Without the unwavering state budget support of the spaceport in these austere times, the multibillion-dollar space launch business of Orbital Sciences Corp., and the would-be space business of Bigelow Aerospace would be most certainly lost to the now-hungry commercial spaceports of Florida. Make no mistake, Florida Space will keep trying; Virginia should expect no less in the new globalized space market business competition.

Virginia has been carefully planning the effort to be the new gateway to low-earth orbit and the moon over the past few years by enacting the first-in-the-nation Commercial Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act in 2007, offered by Del. Terry Kilgore; the ZeroGravity, ZeroTax Act in 2008 offered by Sen. William C. Wampler, Jr.; multimillion-dollar spaceport construction bonds in 2008 and 2009; and, the now $1.3 million annual spaceports operations budget amendment offered by McDonnell. Each step has brought Virginia a little closer to an effective space policy capable of luring space launch firms from California, Nevada, and Texas to peek at what the NewSpace community now calls “space island” and the 21st century opportunities there.

Without the near unanimous support of state legislators over the years, and the persistence of five governors — George Allen, Jim Gilmore, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and now Bob McDonnell — Virginia’s fledgling commercial spaceport would not be on the verge of inaugurating the commercial space era in Virginia and the nation.

The future at the spaceport will not be easy. There is always risk associated with such bold human endeavors. But it is good to know that there is bipartisan support to do what is right — right for Virginia’s high-technology economy, right for national security, right for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, and right for the people of the Delmarva Peninsula. Virginia must also remain firm in its commitment to space commerce investment and continue to advance forward-thinking space policy.

The only open counsel to offer McDonnell is to seek to organize the Virginia congressional delegation on a trek to the new “space island.” Virginia’s 11 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the two U.S. senators need to be positioned to influence federal policy when NASA’s fiscal year 2011 budget and policy authorizations advance through the various committees of Congress. Virginia taxpayers now have a multimillion-dollar vested interest in the commercial space launch business, and it is important to see it grow.

Federal space politics is not so much whether to go but how we get there — to orbit, the moon, Mars, and the asteroids with robotic space probes and human-rated capsules. The policies adopted in the next year may well determine the next 50 years of space commerce, space exploration, and space development. There is no more fitting place to wage the space policy debate than from Virginia — where the first American astronauts of yesteryear trained for the first human spaceflights, and where New World Virginia can now be in direct contact with the New Frontier of commercial spaceflight.



Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia

NASA’s proposed budget contains some very good news for NASA facilities and contractors in Virginia as well as a bit of bad news.

The likely winners: Orbitial Sciences Corporation, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The losers:  contractors working on the Constellation program at NASA Langley.

The proposed budget includes a strong emphasis on commercial space, including an extra $300 million to speed up the agency’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

Orbital Sciences of Herdon, Virginia, is developing its Taurus II booster and Cygnus spacecraft under the COTS program to provide cargo to the International Space Station. (SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif. is developing a competing system under COTS.) Orbital plans to launch the Taurus II rockets from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island.

The Obama Administration wants to send astronauts to ISS aboard commercial rockets. Orbital is expected to be one of the companies bidding for that contract, with the hope of human-rating the Taurus and developing Cygnus into a capsule.

Officials at NASA Wallops say they are pleased with the agency’s new focus on commercial space and smaller robotic probes. The Virginia Pilot reports:

“I think we see some opportunities for Wallops whether it be NASA or commercial activities,” said Keith Koehler, spokesman at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

NASA’s new direction would look to utilize unmanned and robotic missions as a safer and cheaper precursor and possibly a replacement to manned missions. NASA Wallops, with its annual budget of typically around $190 million, is known mostly as a test range that could serve that new direction well, Koehler said.

“Right now we don’t see anything that becomes a detriment to us,” Koehler said of the proposed $19 billion NASA budget for 2011.

The news at NASA Langley is more mixed, the Pilot reports:

According to Keith Henry, NASA Langley spokesman, about 300 service employees and 80 contractors have been working at NASA Langley on the Constellation program. Of NASA Langley’s $750 million annual budget, about $65 million was funding for Constellation, Henry said….

Killing Constellation will not result in any layoffs of NASA Langley civil servant employees, Henry said. There may be some job loss among the contractors who have worked on the program.

Though manned trips to the moon and Mars are out of reach, the new budget would allocate more than $8 billion to NASA for its science, aeronautics and explorations sectors. Those remain three of NASA Langley’s focus areas, Henry said.

“We’re pretty well positioned to share in the direction,” Henry said.