Virginia firm lands multi-year deal to keep America’s other East Coast spaceport humming.
NASA has selected ARES Technical Services Corporation to run its launch range operations at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. They awarded the McLean, Virginia-based company a contract worth up to $339.8 million.
The Wallops Range Contract kicks off February 10 with a one-year base period, followed by four optional one-year extensions that could keep ARES on the job through 2031. It’s structured as a cost-plus-fixed-fee arrangement with an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity component — giving NASA room to issue task orders as needs arise.
NASA also provides launch logistics, ground support, and infrastructure (like launch pads and tracking) for commercial entities like Rocket Lab at Wallops Island alongside its own missions. It is NASA’s only owned and operated launch range to offer services for government and commercial customers alike. Virginia and Maryland operate MARS, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, and lease pads from NASA, which they then sublease to commercial launch service providers like Rocket Lab.
What ARES Will Do
The scope covers just about everything that makes a launch range tick: radar, telemetry, logistics, tracking, and communications services. ARES will support a wide variety of flight vehicles — orbital and suborbital rockets, aircraft, satellites, balloons, and unmanned aerial systems all fall under their umbrella.
Beyond keeping the lights on during launches, the company will handle IT and computer systems, testing and installation of communications gear at launch facilities and control centers, and range technology sustainment engineering. In short, if it involves getting something off the ground at Wallops, ARES is now in the mix.
The bulk of the work happens at Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, but ARES personnel will also provide support at NASA’s Bermuda Tracking Station, the Poker Flat Research Range up in Alaska, and other temporary duty locations as missions require.
About The Wallops Flight Facility
Few people realize it, but there are two rocket launch ranges on the East coast of the US: The Eastern Range, comprised of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Wallops Flight Facility, located in northeast Virginia. Just before the end of World War II, NACA (NASA’s predecessor) established the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station (PARS) there for high-speed aerodynamic research, which kicked off rocket launches at the facility.
Wallops Island has been in the launch business since 1945 — making it one of the oldest launch sites in the country. The facility supports an increasingly busy manifest of commercial and government missions, including Rocket Lab, both for Electron and the upcoming Neutron, Northrop Grumman’s Antares 330 rocket carrying Cygnus cargo to the International Space Station, and soon the Northrup Grumman – Firefly Eclipse medium lift rocket, along with sounding rocket campaigns and small satellite launches.
What Launches There
While Wallops is by no means as busy as the Eastern Range here in Florida, Rocket Lab launches Electron from the US when the mission requires it, which is perhaps best said as “occasionally.” Don’t be fooled, though. Rocket Lab is also about to debut its next-generation fully reusable rocket, Neutron, in a flight from Wallops, slated for sometime this year. For the foreseeable future, Wallops Island will be Neutron’s home rather than the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand.
| Date | Rocket | Provider | Mission | Type | Payload |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 23 | Electron (HASTE) | Rocket Lab | JENNA | Suborbital | MACH-TB hypersonic test |
| Oct 1 | Electron (HASTE) | Rocket Lab | JUSTIN | Suborbital | MACH-TB hypersonic test |
| Nov 18 | Electron (HASTE) | Rocket Lab | VAN | Suborbital | MDA/DIU hypersonic test |
| Dec 18 | Electron | Rocket Lab | Avalanche (STP-S-30) | Orbital | DiskSat (4 satellites) |
Northrop Grumman’s Antares 330 is also slated to launch Cygnus NG-25 in December from Wallops. That launch will be on a new rocket that will a short life, according to NG. Antares 330 is essentially a stopgap hybrid: Firefly’s new first stage bolted onto Northrop’s existing Antares upper stack—to get Cygnus flying from Wallops again as quickly as possible. The current plan is to launch the A330 up to three times only as a stopgap to get Cygnus resupply flights back to launching from Wallops rather than aboard a Falcon 9 mission.
Northrup and Firefly Aerospace are also gearing up for the debut for the post-Antares future: the Eclipse, which they co-developed. The medium lift, partially reusable rocket will enter a very competitive market, but one abounding in opportunity for multiple launches as companies build and maintain LEO constellations.
Wallops Island is near Chincoteague and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, much like Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge and Titusville are close together.
Expect Wallops, especially MARS, get much busier soon, and probably even busier after that, especially as the Eastern Range reaches capacity and Rocket Lab and Northrup Grumman and Firefly Aerospace reach their potential.
