THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508060051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WALLOPS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
If EER Systems Inc. this week successfully launches the first commercial rocket to depart from Wallops Flight Facility, it will make more than history. It will make a name for itself.
While the Vienna, Va., company is known within the aerospace industry, its name does not strike a vibrant chord with the average Virginian.
Take Gov. George F. Allen, for example:
Several weeks ago, Allen appointed 11 men to direct Spaceport Virginia. He announced the names at Wallops, with EER's 56-foot rocket towering in the background. But no one from EER was named to the board.
After a brief speech, Allen donned a hard hat emblazoned with the EER logo and took a tour of the launch pad.
EER staffers gave Allen a company T-shirt and a model of the Conestoga rocket.
As Allen was about to get back into his limo, one reporter just had to know: Why wasn't a member of EER named to the spaceport authority? The governor looked blank for a second and asked:
``Who's EER?''
Jim Hengle, vice president and general manager of EER's Space Systems group, wasn't bothered by Allen's confusion.
``You have to admit, we are truly not a household word,'' said Hengle.
``But the `who's EER?' will come naturally with the success on the pad.''
Actually, the letters ``EER'' don't stand for anything. Hengle describes his company as a ``small, disadvantaged business'' that does $80 million-a-year and employs about 600 people.
The company was started in 1979, said Hengle, and worked under contract for Goddard Space Flight Center analyzing data collected by space-born instruments.
Jai N. Gupta is president and chief executive officer of the privately owned company.
In 1990, EER bought astronaut ``Deke'' Slayton's launch company, Space Services Inc., and subsequently won a NASA grant to develop commercial launch capabilities at Wallops.
Taxpayers have invested $80 million into the Conestoga launch. Hengle said EER pumped a ``substantial'' amount of its own money into the rocket, but did not say how much.
At this point, success on the pad is vitally important to EER. A malfunction after launch would have serious repercussions, not only for the company, but for the aerospace industry as a whole.
Satellite builders, space technology companies, and experimenters of every description need a cost-effective way to put their products and projects into orbit.
Of the three U.S. launch bases - Wallops; Cape Canaveral, Fla.; and Vandenberg AFB in California - only Wallops is in the right spot to shoot rockets into equatorial orbit without expensive, fuel-burning course corrections.
And Wallops is not controlled by the military as the other two launch sites - a bonus for businessmen who don't want to hack through red tape, or wait on a long list of higher-priority launches.
``Whether they admit it or not, everybody from coast to coast is watching this launch,'' said Jim Witherspoon with Virginia's Department of Economic Development. But it's one thing to believe that Wallops can be a commercial spaceport, and another to demonstrate it. Both the federal efforts to stimulate commercial launch through EER, and the state's efforts through Spaceport Virginia, could be jeopardized by NASA budget cuts.
``Until you show a capacity to do it, you're talking in the hypothetical,'' said Witherspoon.
As the launch date nears - it tentatively has been rescheduled a third time for 5:30 p.m. Friday, the intensity in EER's workrooms has mushroomed. Engineers and technicians test systems again and again, doing dry runs of the countdown, blast-off and recovery.
``Now we have to operate,'' said Hengle.
EER didn't build everything on the rocket. The recovery module, which contains some experiments and will circle the Earth for 30 days before splashing down in the Atlantic, was developed by Space Industries International of Texas. Westinghouse built the service module, which will remain in orbit for 2 years and also house experiments. Hengle said EER bought or leased these units.
Together they will lift 14 scientific experiments.
NASA plays a huge part in the upcoming launch. It will track the flight, communicate with the service and recovery modules, and provide safety services. Although EER owns the launch tower, NASA owns the concrete pad on which it sits.
``The good people at Wallops gave us a chunk of sand and we built a launch site,'' said Hengle.
EER isn't the only group that wants a piece of property at Wallops.
The spaceport authority - created this year by the General Assembly - hopes to build a bigger pad near EER's. Spaceport planners want to convert an old Navy building there into a payload processing center.
But Virginia's efforts to use Wallops have yet to materialize, although they're moving forward. The Commercial Space Flight Authority hasn't had its first meeting.
Wayne Woodhams, with ODU's Center for Commercial Space Infrastructure, said his group is working on the authority's behalf to talk with key partners of the future spaceport.
One, of course, is NASA. Woodhams said he will visit Washington soon to seek a formal agreement to build the second commercial launch pad on NASA property. Center staff are also talking with the Department of Transportation's office of Commercial Space Transportation to see if the spaceport needs any licenses.
Meanwhile, the $1 million federal grant Virginia needs to build Phase One of the spaceport is still in limbo.
``We're paving the way as we go,'' said Woodhams of the spaceport's progress.
``It's something that hasn't been done before.''
How do the people at EER feel about another pad being built for their competitors right next door?
``I think the spaceport is a swell idea,'' said Jim Hengle. ``We don't have a monopoly in this area. There are other folks with launch vehicles that could benefit from Wallops like we do.''
Hengle said his company would love to rent the payload processing center, when it's built. EER could even lease the second launch pad if they were processing two flights at once.
The trick, he said, is for the spaceport authority to find companies who are willing to commit their resources to Wallops, as EER has done.
``That's the spaceport's challenge,'' said Hengle.
``We've shown them the way, but they have to deliver other interested users.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Jim Hengle, vice president and general manager of EER's Space
Systems group, describes his company as a ``small, disadvantaged
business'' that does $80 million a year and employs about 600
people.
by CNB