Wallops

Wallops refers to Wallops Island, a barrier island on the Atlantic coast of Virginia, and to the NASA facilities located there. The island is in Accomack County and lies near the towns of Chincoteague and Assateague, forming one of the easternmost sites used for U.S. space research and flight testing.

The Wallops Flight Facility is a NASA center administered by the Goddard Space Flight Center. It conducts aeronautics and flight-trajectory research, and operates the Wallops Island Launch Range, a multi-site launch complex used for suborbital sounding rockets and small orbital launches. The range supports scientific experiments, technology demonstrations, and educational missions, often in collaboration with U.S. government partners, universities, and commercial companies. In the 2010s, Orbital Sciences used the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops to launch Antares rockets delivering cargo to the International Space Station.

Facilities at Wallops include launch pads and range infrastructure developed over decades of operation, as well as mission control and processing assets. The site also maintains a public-facing presence through the Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center, which offers exhibits on spaceflight and the range, weather permitting.

History and role: the site originated as a U.S. Navy airfield and evolved into a flight- research and launch facility in the mid-20th century. Today, Wallops serves as a key NASA asset for aeronautics research, flight testing, and small-launch capabilities, contributing to both government and commercial space initiatives.