WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (WAVY) — Since 1995, and since then, there have been several rockets that have orbited the Earth, and some that have even gone to the Moon.
Rockets that leave this pad do not launch themselves. They need a team of people, and that’s where the Virginia Spaceport Authority comes in who supports and maintains these launchpads.
“We are a force of about 125 people, and we operate and maintain the pads prior to launches and then refurbishment after launch, said Ted Mercer, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Spaceport Authority. “So we’re constantly changing corrosion control modifications and upgrades to make sure the pads are ready for the next launch.”
Across the country, access to space has been growing and that has also been something happening here at this spaceport.
“Right now we have three launch pads and you might hear some construction in the background where we’re building a fourth,” Mercer said. “That pad will be designated pad 0D, and the first customer will be Rocket Labs new Neutron rocket.”
The Neutron Rocket will be similar to the Antares vehicle that we have seen launch from here before. It’s a medium-size rocket able to send large payloads to orbit and beyond.
This spaceport is one of only four ways public and private companies can access space within our country, and that’s big for Virginia.
“Because one of the things that our nation needs is a shared access to space, and you cannot have it if you don’t have a spaceport from which to launch,” Mercer said. “So, in the United States, there are only four public space ports in the entire nation. We happen to be one of them here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
In the future, we might even see reusable rockets come back to where they launched from.
“We are planning for landing zones to return those those rockets once they have launched so that they can be refurbished and then then launched again in a subsequent mission.” Mercer said.
The payload, the satellite, gets linked up with that rocket. They finish getting assembled and then they are rolled out to the launch pad.