Wallops Flight Facility
Wallops Island, Virginia, 37°56′25″N 75°27′59″W / 37.940194°N 75.466389°W | |
Employees | 1,400 |
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Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Goddard Space Flight Center NASA |
Website | nasa.gov/centers/wallops |
Map | |
Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) (
There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of
The Wallops Flight Facility also supports science missions for the
The WFF mobile range assets have been used to support rocket launches from locations in the Arctic and Antarctic regions,
History
In 1945, NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), established a rocket launch site on Wallops Island under the direction of the Langley Research Center. This site was designated the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station and conducted high-speed aerodynamic research to supplement wind tunnel and laboratory investigations into the problems of flight. In 1958, Congress established NASA, which absorbed Langley Research Center and other NACA field centers and research facilities. At that time, the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station became a separate facility, Wallops Station, operating directly under NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
In 1959, NASA acquired the former
In the early years, research at Wallops concentrated on obtaining aerodynamic data at transonic and low supersonic speeds. Between 1959 and 1961, Project Mercury
The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops Island was
On September 6, 2013, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) was launched from Wallops, atop a Minotaur V rocket. This was the first time that an American lunar mission had been launched from anywhere but Florida.[8]
Wallops Island is currently experiencing
A permanent ground control station for NASA's
Facilities
The WFF Main Base is located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on the
Airspace
Wallops operates controlled airspace with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) qualified air traffic controllers including:
- The WFF Airport Control Zone to 2,500 feet (760 m) within a 5-statute-mile (8.0 km) radius of the airport
- Restricted Area R-6604 connecting WFF airspace and offshore warning areas.
Fixed facilities
Major Wallops facilities include FAA-certified
The Wallops Research Range includes ground-based and mobile systems, and a range control center. Its radar facilities and systems are used for tracking and surveillance. Telemetry facilities include a variety of antennas, receivers, and display instrumentation systems. Command uplink and optical tracking facilities are included as part of the range. The range also provides premier digital photographic and video services including operation of numerous still cameras, high speed and video systems for Range Safety support, surveillance, and post-launch analysis (e.g., failure analysis), project documentation (e.g., fabrication and test), administrative documentation, and archiving for environmental studies. In addition, WFF has a variety of communications systems and facilities to route voice, video, and data in support of launch processing, flight, and test operations.
The WFF Research Airport is located on the Main Base. There are three runways (from 4,810 feet (1,470 m) to 8,750 feet (2,670 m) long), two taxiways, three ramps, and one hazardous cargo loading area in active service. Two ramps adjoin the two active hangars, and a third ramp adjoins the Crash, Fire and Rescue building. The primary research runway has a test section with a variety of surface textures and materials for runway research projects.
Weather measurements and predictions are critical to all Research Airport operations, rocket and balloon launches, and in safely conducting hazardous operations on the ground. Wallops meteorological services provide measurements of upper atmospheric and magnetic phenomena to augment and enable the collection of scientific data by sensors aboard flight vehicles. The
Mobile systems
The Wallops mobile range instrumentation includes telemetry, radar, command and power systems. These assets are used as needed to supplement instrumentation at existing ranges, or to establish a temporary range to ensure safety and collect data to support the rocket customers in a remote location where no other range instrumentation exists. This complement of transportable systems can be deployed to provide complete range capabilities at remote locations around the world. While Wallops Island is the prime location for range services, major sounding rocket campaigns have been supported at
Range technology development
Since 2001, engineers at NASA Wallops Flight Facility have been developing new range technologies, systems and approaches to improve the cost and responsiveness of launch and flight test activities, within the constraints of available funding and program schedules.
Specifically, NASA Wallops has been leading two range technology development projects: the Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) and the Low Cost TDRSS Transceiver (LCT2).
AFSS is a project to develop an autonomous on-board system that could augment or replace traditional ground-commanded Range Safety flight termination systems. The AFSS would use redundant sensors and processors on board a launch vehicle to monitor its trajectory, and if necessary initiate pyrotechnic devices to terminate the flight.
LCT2 is an effort to produce a relatively low-cost transceiver to allow launch vehicles to communicate through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) after they have gone over the horizon from the launch site. LCT2 is being pursued as part of the Space Based Range Demonstration and Certification (SBRDC) program (formerly called Space Based Telemetry and Range Safety (STARS)) in cooperation with NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Missions
WFF's primary mission areas are as follows:
- Sounding Rockets
- Scientific Balloons
- Aircraft
- Range and Mission Management
- Small Launch Vehicle Research
- Mission Planning Lab
With its sounding rocket, aircraft, and balloon flights carrying scientific payloads, its aeronautical systems testing, its range support for Space Shuttle launches, and its educational outreach activities, WFF supports all of NASA's Mission Directorates and practically all of their respective themes:
- Science Mission Directorate
- Exploration Mission Directorate
- Aeronautics Mission Directorate
- Space Operations Mission Directorate
Commercial spaceport
In 1998, the
Visitor center
The
The schedule for sounding rocket launches from WFF is posted on its official Web site.[13]
Education
For many years WFF was home to the NSIP Sub-SEM and SEM projects. NSIP stands for the NASA Student Involvement Project, the Sub-SEM project was to design one of four experiments that would be inserted into an ORION-II one-stage rocket and launched above 98 percent of the atmosphere, and experience over 30 Gs of centrifugal force, while SEM was to design an experiment that would be flown on a future Space Shuttle mission. Each project gave 16 students and four teachers (four students and one teacher from each high school) the opportunity to spend an almost all-expense-paid week at WFF. Normally the students and teachers stayed in the Mariner Motel, now a Holiday Inn, conducting experiments and learning about the facility. Following the presidential mandate and budget cuts the entire NSIP program, SEM and Sub-SEM included, was shut down.
Accidents
On April 2, 1957, a Lockheed P2V-6 Neptune exploded in midair after takeoff from what was then known as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Chincoteague. All eleven occupants of the aircraft died.[14]
On October 23, 1995, the maiden flight of a Conestoga 1620 rocket failed 46 seconds after liftoff, resulting in disintegration. EER Space Systems, Conestoga's manufacturer, concluded that low frequency noise from an unknown source upset the guidance system on the rocket causing it to order course corrections when none were needed. The rocket went off course when its first stage steering mechanism ran out of hydraulic fluid and became inoperable. After this failure, the Conestoga program was terminated, and EER abandoned the launch business.[15][16] At the time of the launch, the Conestoga was the largest rocket ever launched from Wallops Island, and it was the first orbital mission attempted from the facility since 1985.[17] The company's launch pad at Wallops Island were the first commercially built facilities in the US. 14 scientific experiments, some of which were planned to return from orbit, were destroyed. All debris landed in the Atlantic Ocean. There were no injuries.[18]
On October 27, 1998, a Learjet 45 was destroyed at Wallops after a loss of control during a water ingestion test flight. Only minor injuries to a copilot and flight engineer were reported. There were no ground injuries. The airplane was being used to test a new nose wheel tire. For the test, the airplane was passed through a "pool" or "trough" of water on the runway at different speeds.[19] The pilot failed to obtain/maintain alignment with the water pool and lost control. The plane departed the left side of the runway, and struck a pickup truck parked adjacent to the runway.[20]
On August 22, 2008, an ALV X-1 sounding rocket was intentionally destroyed 20 seconds into flight after veering too far off course.[21]
On October 28, 2014, a failure occurred in an
Alliances
The NASA Wallops Flight Facility has alliances with a number of organizations important to its mission and future growth. Some examples include:
- Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS)
- U.S. Navy Surface Combat Systems Center (SCSC)
- Navy Test and Training Ranges
- U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 45, Eastern Range
- U.S. Coast Guard
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)
- Marine Science Consortium (MSC)
- White Sands Missile Range (WSMR)
It has also worked with the National Security Agency in experiments involving ionized clouds for communications interception during the Cold War.[23]
Image gallery
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Early research rockets at Wallops Island
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Wallops flight tests of Mercury capsule escape tower and Apollo heat shield aboard a Scout
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Mobile Range Systems
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Launch Pads 0-A and 0-B
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Mobile Telemetry System
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Optical Tracking Systems
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Range Control Center
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Mobile system at theSvalRaklaunch site at Ny-Ålesund, Norway (2003)
See also
References
- ^ "Sounding Rocket Vehicles". Nasa Wallops Flight Facility. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Expendable Launch Vehicles". Nasa Wallops Flight Facility. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "NFIRE" (PDF). Nasa Wallops Flight Facility. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Overview". Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Activities at Wallops Flight Facility". American Astronautical Society. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Project Mercury Overview". Nasa Kennedy Space Centre. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ Myler, Joseph L. "7-Mile Salt Marsh, Sand Strip in Virginia Oldest, Tiniest Spaceport in U.S." (March 16, 1961), UPI via The Middlesboro Daily News", p. 3
- ^ "NASA Launch Shoots for the Moon from Virginia Tonight: Watch It Online", Space.com, September 6, 2013
- ^ McNeill, Ryan; Nelson, Deborah J. (4 September 2014). "As the seas rise, a slow-motion disaster gnaws at America's shores". www.reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
- ^ 3 governors, 1 mission: Bring drones to Wallops Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ Philip A. Ingwersen and William Z. Lemnios (2000). "Radars for Ballistic Missile Defense Research" (PDF). Lincoln Laboratory Journal. 12 (2): 245–266. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 25, 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Mid-Atlantic commercial spaceport makes 1st launch". USATODAY. December 16, 2006. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "NASA's Wallops Flight Facility". Nasa. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
- ^ "Aircraft accident Learjet 45 N454LJ Wallops Island, VA". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ "Conestoga 1620". astronautix.com. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ "Conestoga". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ Roylance, Frank. "Rocket explodes above Wallops Malfunction ends first commercial flight from NASA center". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ Chrasekaran, Rajiv. "Rocket explodes off VA". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ "NTSB Identification: IAD99FA008". ntsb.gov. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ "Aircraft accident Lockheed P2V-6 Neptune 126518 Chincoteague NAAS, VA". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ Tennant, Diane. "NASA destroys rocket shortly after launch at Wallops Island". pilotonline.com. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- ^ Wall, Mike. "Private Orbital Sciences Rocket Explodes During Launch, NASA Cargo Lost". space.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
- ^ "NSA.gov" (PDF). Nsa.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
Further reading
- Wallops Station and the Creation of an American Space Program, by Harold D. Wallace (NASA History Series) (Paperback). ISBN 0-16-054740-7. NASA SP-4311
- Wallops Island (Images of America: Virginia), by Nan Devincent Hayes and Bowen Bennett (Paperback). ISBN 0-7385-0666-4
External links
- Wallops Flight Facility (official site)
- WFF Multimedia (movie about NASA WFF, handbooks, maps)
- WFF Public Affairs Office
- NASA Visitor Center (official website)
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- The short film "This Island Called Wallops" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- The short film "Wallops Island launch facility (ca. 1965)" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective March 21, 2024
- FAA Terminal Procedures for WAL, effective March 21, 2024
- Resources for this U.S. military airport:
- FAA airport information for WAL
- AirNav airport information for KWAL
- ASN accident history for WAL
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KWAL
- NOTAMs for KWAL