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.
In a flawless early-morning liftoff, Rocket Lab successfully deployed four disk-shaped satellites into a very low earth orbit. The mission, named “Don’t Be Such a Square,” was Rocket Lab’s first public mission from Wallops in well over a year.
Aside from the launchpads at KSC and Vandenberg, MARS, or the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, is the third busiest launch site in the United States. MARS, also called Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), offers different launch trajectories that are not available at Florida launch sites. Typically, Wallops supports the launch and recovery of sounding rockets, which are small payloads compared to what is launched in Florida.
Rocket Lab Electron launches 'Justin' as part of its HASTE program.Photo: Chris Leymarie, Florida Media Now New Zealand-based launcher Rocket Lab launched one its Electron rockets from Wallops Island, Virginia tonight in support of The Hypersonic…
