NASA is increasing its support of the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. The space agency said the support contract with the Virginia Space Flight Authority has a potential value of approximately $43 million through May 2014.

The investment is part of an effort to enhance the Atlantic center to successfully launch small and medium class orbital missions for NASA, as well as other federal organizations and commercial launch providers.

Launches are planned in 2011 and 2012 at Wallops.

MARS works in conjunction with WFF, launching satellites and other missions into low-Earth orbit. With an FAA license, MARS will be able to launch humans on commercial spaceflights for space tourism. Virginia's Governor Bob McDonnell has thrown his full support behind Wallops and MARS (Creigh Deeds and McDonnell matched each other on support for Wallops during the election). Last week, McDonnell urged the Virginia General Assembly to keep former Gov. Kaine's commitment to invest $1.3 million in MARS, despite Virginia's current budget shortfall. As Space Politics noted, McDonnell promised, "We can make Wallops Island the top commercial Spaceport in America, and I ask you to keep that money in place so that we can aggressively recruit aerospace companies and promote space tourism initiatives."

"Ever heard of Wallops Island? This small barrier island off Virginia's coast may not be a household name, but it has the potential to threaten Florida's position as a leader in space flight." The above statement comes from Barney T. Bishop, president and chief executive officer of Associated Industries of Florida, in a Jan. 26 guest column in the Orlando Sentinel.

Bishop goes on to say that Wallops "is prepped to become the 21st century's capital for manned space flight." And that if Florida doesn't get its act together, it's destined to play "second

This was before President Barack Obama's announced Monday that he wants to end NASA's return moon mission. Among other things, Obama wants to rely more heavily on commercial space travel.

WASHINGTON — Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. is throwing its hat into NASA’s commercial-crew transport ring with plans to develop a crew capsule based on the company’s Cygnus cargo module, according to industry sources.

Beneski said a crew variant of Orbital’s Cygnus pressurized cargo module capable of carrying three or four astronauts, along with a human-rated version of Taurus 2, could be developed at a cost of $2 billion to $3 billion. One industry source identified Boeing as a potential partner in the effort, which would involve adding a new liquid-hydrogen second stage to the Taurus 2, giving it the thrust needed to carry around 8 metric tons to the space station. This would accommodate an Apollo-sized capsule based on the Cygnus cargo vehicle design along with a service module.

Although Beneski declined to comment on the time that will be necessary to develop a crew transport capability, one industry source estimated four years from contract award.

Orbital Sciences is still hoping for a March 2011 debut of the company's medium-lift Taurus 2 rocket, but challenges with facility construction and delays in ground testing could push the first launch later into next year, a senior manager said.


Speaking to Spaceflight Now last week, Orbital senior vice president Frank Culbertson said first stage engine testing at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi is now projected to start in April or May.

The first batch of AJ26 engines is slated to arrive at Stennis no earlier than March, nearly a year later than expected in schedules announced in late 2008.

Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) successfully tested its newly developed CASTOR® 30 upper stage solid rocket motor today at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tennessee. The test was a significant milestone for ATK, which developed the motor using internal research and development funding. The CASTOR 30 fills a key position in the company's "Family of Motors" product line concept. This concept provides a set of fully developed rocket motors to the market place that have been specifically selected to satisfy the maximum number of current and future military and commercial customer missions.

A version of this motor is being used by Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) in its Taurus®( )II medium-class launch vehicle. It is slated to perform commercial cargo re-supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, to be demonstrated under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program for later delivery missions to the ISS under the Commercial Resupply Services contract. A slightly modified version of the CASTOR 30 is also being used as the basis for the third stage of the U.S. Air Force Large Class (92-inch) Stage (LCS) program. Other potential applications have also been identified.

When it comes to transportation, it can't be a case of "us" versus "them." It has to be "all of us" if any of us in Hampton Roads is to do well.

But that face-off mentality is encouraged by the region's geography, with the harbor and rivers separating the Peninsula from the cities — Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Chesapeake — of South Hampton Roads.

There's a tendency to draw lines, and recent developments threaten to pit those who like to do that against each other. The latest arrived in the form of an announcement by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation that the most cost-effective way to improve passenger rail service, and connect Hampton Roads with Richmond, Washington and points north, is by upgrading service that runs down the Peninsula, not by focusing on a high-speed line to Norfolk.

The agency didn't recommend among the options, but it seems to have skipped the part where cost calculations are checked against common sense. Because it would point this way: While rail service to the Peninsula would be retained, the focus for high-cost, high-speed upgrades should be on the southern and western part of Hampton Roads, where two-thirds of the residents and most of the economic powerhouses are found.

Well, I voted today (holding my nose the entire time ). We just didn't have any good candidates this year. Turnout was light, which means that McDonnell likely has this one in the bag. I just hope he uses his majorities in both house to actually get something done with transportation, i'm doubtful that this will happen though. More likely or not that social agenda of his that stayed suspiciously hidden during the length of the campaign will rear it's ugly head once in office, to the detriment of all else. I would love to be wrong on this though.

Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. is throwing its hat into NASA’s commercial-crew transport ring with plans to develop a crew capsule based on the company’s Cygnus cargo module, according to industry sources.

“We’re definitely supportive of the idea of commercial crew,” Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski said Sept. 11. “We were initially focused on cargo, but now that the Augustine recommendations are out, there seems to be a more serious look at how the private sector can contribute, and that’s what Orbital has done for basically our whole history.”

An independent panel chartered by the White House in May to review NASA’s human spaceflight program released a summary report Sept. 8 endorsing commercial services to transport crews to and from low Earth orbit.

The panel, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, found that while a space architecture crafted to provide opportunities to the private sector would not come without risks, it could save NASA money.

In public meetings held this summer, the Augustine panel indicated it would urge the White House to set aside at least $2.5 billion to stimulate private-sector competition to develop a commercial crew capability.

Beneski said a crew variant of Orbital’s Cygnus pressurized cargo module capable of carrying three or four astronauts, along with a human-rated version of Taurus 2, could be developed at a cost of $2 billion to $3 billion.

One industry source identified Boeing as a potential partner in the effort, which would involve adding a new liquid-hydrogen second stage to the Taurus 2, giving it the thrust needed to carry around 8 metric tons to the space station. This would accommodate an Apollo-sized capsule based on the Cygnus cargo vehicle design along with a service module.

Although Beneski declined to comment on the time that will be necessary to develop a crew transport capability, one industry source estimated four years from contract award.

Another one... According to Bob McDonnell in 2003, homosexual conduct is grounds for removing a judge from the bench or denying him/her the seat in the first place. This guy is the fringe.

WaPo

Now we have Thesisgate... So McDonnell wrote his Master's thesis on the decline of the American family unit and the Republican prescription. From what I read, it could have been written by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell themselves. According to a 34 year-old McDonnell, working women, gays, "fornicators", day-care, and of course Democrats have destroyed the family and are destroying America. Doesn't sound much different from today's Republican party-line, so how much has he really changed his views?

Read for yourself...LINK

Work will begin in the next two weeks or so on a new building on Wallops, the Horizontal Integration Facility, where the rocket will be assembled before being transported to the launch pad.Construction of the launch pad itself will begin in October. The pad has to withstand almost 1 million pounds of downward thrust at launch from the 125-foot-tall rocket.

"These are big rockets; they'll rattle your teeth if you're within 10 miles" when they launch, Bobczynski said.

A total of 1,500 piles driven 130 feet down will be used in construction of the two facilities on the barrier island.

Transporting the large rocket parts to Wallops is one of the main challenges Orbital faces, according to Bobczynski. The hump-backed bridge to the island is not rated to carry the weight of some components, while the barge option also is running into problems due to the shallow, narrow channel leading to the island.The current plan is to bring the first stage of the rocket, which is manufactured in the Ukraine, by barge from Newport News up the coast to an area off Wallops, then switch to a smaller tugboat to bring the barge into Chincoteague Bay.

Bobczynski also said he was to meet Thursday with the person who leases oyster beds just to the south of where the barge will enter.

"Ultimately, our long-term goal in five or six years is not to have to barge this thing," he said, adding the company would need Accomack County's support to create infrastructure to bring rocket components in another way. Rail is one alternative, he said.

County Administrator Steve Miner more than a year ago initiated a project to research the region's railroad system and scenarios for bringing the railroad to Wallops. A Salisbury University study on the railroad is now complete, Economic Development Director Larry Forbes said.

An academic symposium will be held this fall to explore the potential of what officials are calling "Virginia's Spaceplex" in the Wallops Island area.

Accomack County and state officials met with representatives from several state universities Wednesday in Richmond to hear preliminary proposals for a concept study for the Wallops area, which would emphasize developing a vision for its potential and which eventually would lead to an economic impact analysis and concrete recommendations.

The county last week issued a request for proposals for the study, saying it will aid in marketing efforts for Wallops area enterprises. But by the end of yesterday's meeting at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the group decided to take a broader approach and to concentrate on three different aspects of planning for growth in the area: to plan for immediate needs related Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus II project; to hold a symposium; and to do comprehensive long-range planning.

The group also decided at that meeting that a concept study was needed.

Included in Wednesday's meeting were Forbes; Bull; Accomack County Administrator Steve Miner; Accomack County Planning Director Jim McGowan; Bruce Hoogstraten, Chairman of the Governor's Aerospace Council; Dr. Billie Reed and Laurie Naismith of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport; Virginia National Defense Industrial Authority Manager Stan Scott; several VEDP representatives, and representatives of academic institutions including Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.

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Wallops Island facility to be 'Cape Canaveral of North'
There isn't much to see yet at the grandly named Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, just the skeleton of an old launch gantry on a piece of oceanfront leased from the federal government.

But promoters expect something remarkable to blossom on this sun-baked spit of sand and scrub on the Eastern Shore.

David Smith, a state official from Virginia, which joined with Maryland six years ago to operate a commercial spaceflight center with the lofty acronym MARS, says the area is on track to become "the Cape Canaveral of the North."

For now, though, it's the Wal-Mart of spaceports.

"They can do more with a dollar than anyone else within NASA," said Robert Strain, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center, which operates the Wallops Flight Facility where MARS is based.

The facility operates out of a one-room former gas station on NASA property, not far from a busy highway that takes beach-bound visitors to the southern end of Assateague Island. It employs six people.

Spaceport officials like to tout their cut-rate location, a barrier island just off the Delmarva Peninsula. From here, they say, it's a shorter shot to the orbiting International Space Station, which means lower bills for rocket fuel. Insurance is cheaper, too, since flights go almost entirely over water (trajectories from Florida cross Europe and the Middle East).

MARS' new $10 million rocket assembly building, soon to go up near a new launch pad, is so modestly sized that 50 of them could fit into the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida with room to spare. The Mid-Atlantic spaceport's sole rocket provider fashions launch vehicles, in part, from fuel tanks and engines developed for intercontinental ballistic missiles by the United States and its Soviet bloc adversaries and decommissioned after the Cold War.