THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503120277
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WALLOPS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 133 lines
With two signatures on key legislation, Gov. George F. Allen could launch a commercial spaceport on the Eastern Shore. Two signatures, and Virginia could help slow the drain of private aerospace dollars to foreign launch companies that dominate the market.
A bill and $375,000 budget amendment - both approved by the General Assembly and sitting on the governor's desk - would create and fund the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. The authority would add to commercial facilities already at Wallops Flight Facility. It could be ready to launch a wide variety of rockets in 18 months.
The commonwealth is home to 250 space-related businesses, most clustered in Northern Virginia. An in-state spaceport would be a dream come true for these companies. They need a cost-effective way to get their products, mostly communications satellites, into orbit.
``This is not a pipe dream,'' said Billie Reed, one of the spaceport's biggest boosters. ``Those satellites are being built. The only thing that hasn't happened yet is the put-them-into-space part.''
Reed is associate director of the Center for Commercial Space Infrastructure at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. He and other engineers at the center have been working for three years, half of that time without pay, to get the spaceport off the ground. They are convinced that NASA's Wallops Flight Facility has the right stuff to compete in the international launch market.
The commercial spaceport could attract key customers now, said Reed, because aerospace companies like Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. are looking for inexpensive launch sites. Keith Bull, who does economic development on the Eastern Shore, said 17 aerospace companies have expressed an interest in launching at Wallops.
``They're making decisions for their businesses right now,'' said Bull. ``Eighteen months from now, most of them will be settled at a location.''
So, said Bull, Virginia needs to move quickly.
``We need to be there,'' said Reed. ``The time is right, and timing is everything. Nobody likes to finance a space venture, because it's risky until it happens. But once it happens, it's too late. You're either in it or out of it.''
Maryland, where many NASA workers live, already has bought into the spaceport idea. It has committed $100,000 to a launch site at Wallops, said Reed. Lockheed has promised $200,000. The state's Center for Innovative Technology plunked down $225,000, and aerospace businesses are throwing $54,000 into the pot.
If the $375,000 budget amendment is signed by Allen, the keystone of the funding structure would be in place. The combined funds would be enough matching money to qualify for a $1 million matching grant from the federal Economic Development Administration. With that grant in hand, construction could begin.
Wayne Woodhams, also at ODU's Center for Commercial Space Infrastructure, thinks it's time for Virginia to invest in its aerospace industry.
``Trucking companies don't build roads,'' said Woodhams. ``Airlines don't build airports. The infrastructure has to be there first. This is part of the same thing. You're not going to have space flights unless you have spaceports.''
EER, a Virginia-based launch company, already has built a pad and tower at Wallops. It expects to launch a Conestoga rocket with 11 types of payloads in July. But EER's pad is designed to meet its specific needs, and is not useful for other types of rockets.
The spaceport authority would build a bigger, heavier launch pad right next to the one that EER built, and a generic launch tower. It would also renovate an old Navy building nearby for preparing payloads.
A spaceport at Wallops could create 300 jobs on the Eastern Shore, and generate $60 million in capital investment, say project organizers. And they said a thriving commercial launch site, or even the prospect of one, could influence the federal government to preserve some of the space programs endangered by NASA's quest to trim $5 billion from its budget.
The market for commercial launch services is science fact, not fiction. A study by Reed's group says 553 satellites are planned for launches over the Atlantic between 1996 and 2004. If even a portion of them use the proposed spaceport, Wallops could launch one rocket each month for the next nine years.
Without a spaceport at Wallops, satellite builders, pharmaceutical-company scientists and others who create experiments to go into space will have to line up at Cape Canaveral in Florida. They could wait for years to launch their products. It can cost up to $1 million to launch a payload from Canaveral, said Reed. Wallops could offer the same service for half the price.
Another option, and one chosen by a large number of commercial space customers, is to contract with a foreign company, probably French. The French launch commercial rockets from South America. Two-thirds of the world's rocket launches are conducted outside the U.S., the ODU engineers say.
The Wallops NASA base already has most of the big-ticket items that launch companies would need to use but could not afford to build. It has control and tracking centers, an airport, storage for solid and liquid rocket fuel, machine shops, blockhouses, and water and sewerage and fire and security services. For a fee, it could supply this backup.
Pure geography is a big part of the reason for affordable launches at Wallops, said Reed. Rockets launched over the Atlantic use less fuel to get into preferred orbits for communications satellites because they are traveling in the same direction that the Earth is spinning. Reduced fuel consumption translates into smaller costs for launch companies, which trickles down to lower costs for the customers.
And using Wallops would save aerospace businesses precious time, says Reed. He said it takes years to get on the shuttle from Cape Canaveral. Rockets could be stacked and launched at Wallops in a matter of months.
``You can hand us your experiment six hours before launch,'' said David Berger with EER at Wallops. ``And we can give it back to you four to six hours after recovery.''
An experiment flying on the shuttle would have to be loaded months in advance, and it could take months to get it back after the flight. EER technicians said they could give experiments longer space-exposure time than the shuttle provides.
A commercial space venture at Wallops also could be used extensively for educational purposes. Reed and the people at ODU hope the university can be involved in every launch. Old Dominion could develop a master's degree program for space operations and management.
Phase 2 of the project would be funded by $5.2 million in bonds issued by the spaceport authority. In Phase 2, the launch tower would be built and the existing Navy building would be renovated into a place where the rockets could be stacked and loaded with satellites or experiments.
Sounds great. But can all this be expected to happen, especially in light of NASA's threatened budget cuts? Ray Stanley, who heads the NASA commercial space program at Wallops, thinks the NASA cuts could actually increase the involvement of aerospace contractors.
Any functions NASA discontinues could be picked up by the contractors, said Stanley.
``We still have a job to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
STAFF
WALLOPS ISLAND SPACEPORT
SOURCE: Center for Commercial Space Infrasructure at ODU
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB