
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 13, 1995                   TAG: 9503130097
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

VA. SPACEPORT AWAITS LIFTOFF

A bill awaiting Gov. George Allen's signature would create a space flight authority that proponents say could make Virginia's Eastern Shore a premier site for rocket launches.

The bill and a $375,000 budget amendment, both approved by the General Assembly last month, would create and fund the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. The authority would add to commercial facilities already at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore.

Boosters say an in-state spaceport would be a dream come true for many aerospace companies. Virginia is the home to 250 space-related businesses, mostly in suburban Washington, who are looking for inexpensive launch sites for communications satellites and other products.

``This is not a pipe dream,'' said Billie Reed, associate director of the Center for Commercial Space Infrastructure at Old Dominion University. ``Those satellites are being built. The only thing that hasn't happened yet is the put-them-into-space part.''

Allen is reviewing the legislation, spokesman Ken Stroupe said Sunday. The governor has until March 27 to sign or veto it.

Reed and other Old Dominion engineers have worked three years to get the spaceport off the ground. They say the Wallops facility would save businesses time and money and could be ready to launch a variety of rockets in 18 months.

Rockets launched over the Atlantic Ocean use less fuel to get into preferred orbits for communications satellites because they travel in the same direction as the Earth's rotation, Reed said. Reduced fuel consumption means smaller costs.

Reed said it takes years to get on the space shuttle from Cape Canaveral, Fla., but rockets could be launched at Wallops in a matter of months, for a lower price.

A spaceport at Wallops could create 300 jobs on the Eastern Shore and generate $60 million in capital investment, project organizers said.

If Allen signs the budget amendment, the state money, plus other already-committed funds from other sources, would be enough to qualify for a $1 million matching grant from the federal Economic Development Administration.

Virginia must move quickly, Reed said.

``The time is right, and timing is everything,'' he said. ``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.''

by CNB