Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220160
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HERNDON LENGTH: Long
The report said NASA's Wallops flight center on the Eastern Shore has a wealth of assets for launching small satellites, performing experiments or making new products in relative weightlessness.
The secluded spot has controlled airspace and a dazzling array of airstrips, orbital tracking stations, launching pads, rocket assembly shops, well-outfitted support aircraft and laboratories.
The 6,200-acre site, one of only three launching sites in the nation, has 1 million square feet of buildings and 30 miles of roads; its radar can detect an insect a 10th of an inch long from seven miles away.
But the report, prepared by consultants, listed problems that could hamper efforts to make the place a focal point of a bustling commercial space industry.
A spaceport could disturb the island's fragile environment and infringe on Navy activities. The site is unsuited for reaching preferred orbits and there's a "deep-seated institutional conflict" between private industry and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
What may be the biggest uncertainty results from the embryonic state of commercial markets for rocket launchings and support services.
"Everybody knows that it's out there; it's going to happen," said Jack Whitelaw, manager for NASA programs at LTV Aerospace & Defense Co. "We don't know when."
Stephen Morgan, director of space industry development at the CIT, said he is confident of ironing out the wrinkles and stimulating the market.
"I don't think there are any show-stoppers," Morgan said. "In some cases, I think [the consultants] were a little bit pessimistic."
Results of a more detailed study are expected in June.
Morgan said CIT officials have been approached this year by a half-dozen firms about launching rockets or providing support services from Wallops.
Yet, according to Peter B. Fitzpatrick, executive vice president of the CIT, a spaceport should not be developed until the market is ready. Hugh Keogh, director of the state Department of Economic Development, thinks a spaceport is three to five years away.
On March 21, CIT officials briefed Gov. Douglas Wilder. Promoting commercial use of space was a pet project of former Gov. Gerald Baliles, but the extent of Wilder's interest is unknown.
Laura Dillard, the governor's press secretary, said, "His first interest is obviously going to be how much this is going to cost out of state coffers."
The latest federal space policy, issued two years ago, bars NASA from competing with private firms, but the report said the space industry remains skeptical, and NASA officials are not convinced private firms are capable of space pioneering.
Ray Stanley, NASA's liaison for commercial activities at Wallops, said executives in the private sector often do not realize that hard knocks are part of the business.
"There is a feeling that there is a learning curve these boys have to go up," he said.
Still, Stanley said Wallops is complying with the policy: "We are definitely in the launch range business."
To Morgan at CIT, widespread conflict between the federal government and the space industry is a myth. He said an agreement between CIT and NASA to help boost commercial use of Wallops is ready to be signed.
According to the report, launchings at Wallops have declined sharply since the 1960s. But the Navy, which conducts testing and training there, likes it that way.
"The Navy, for reasons of national security and safety, would like to keep any civilian commercial activity on the island at minimum levels, preferably away from Wallops Island," the report said.
Capt. Eric Washam, commander of the Aegis Combat Systems Center at Wallops, said the Navy has a $400 million investment there. The 3-year-old center tests radar and other high-technology gear for destroyers and cruisers.
The Navy works around NASA's schedule, but private launchings could pose a problem, Washam said. The Navy does not want rockets veering into its equipment or interfering with its radio signals, he said.
"The concern would be that too much of a good thing could put a crimp in" Navy activities, he said.
According to Stanley at Wallops, NASA would urge companies to use launching pads at the far end of the island. Insurance costs for launching near Navy operations would provide extra incentive, he said.
Still, the launching pads used by LTV for government-financed flights of the Scout rocket are less than a mile from the Navy center.
Whitelaw at LTV said the company, one of only three with Wallops launching agreements, is seeking private customers. But he said he could not predict whether a large private market would ever evolve for Wallops.
As Whitelaw noted, current demand comes almost exclusively from the federal government.
NASA is eyeing the purchase of seven rockets for scientific experiments, with an option for three more, he said. Four of the missions could be flown from Wallops.
The report pointed out that the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 has created a backlog of government demand. Launchings from Wallops will double by 1995 and double again by 2000, the report estimated.
Morgan at CIT predicted that government missions will take up much of the Wallops capacity. Private customers would need room nearby, especially for the proprietary research and development that is banned on government land.
Accomack County's industrial park has only one tenant, but it is 20 miles from Wallops. A former apartment complex on 50 acres outside the main gate might be suitable, the report said. Marine researchers occupy one building; others are deteriorating.
Erecting new buildings could raise environmental questions. The island has extensive wetlands and a shifting shoreline. Any plan to fill wetlands would invite a regulatory quagmire.
While not technically a wildlife refuge, the island lies between refuges on Chincoteague Island and Assawoman Island. Its location on the Atlantic flyway lures thousands of migrating birds in spring and fall.
Irvin Ailes, a biologist at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, said launchings at Wallops already force the closure of the "hook" - the south end of Assateague Island - two or three times a year.
If the spaceport can pass muster with the Navy and environmental agencies, further questions remain about orbits. Polar orbits - over the poles - and equatorial orbits - parallel to the equator - are considered the routes of choice for many satellites, the report noted.
But Wallops is too far north for equatorial orbits and launchings toward the poles would go over populated areas, posing unacceptable danger.
"To achieve either the equatorial or polar orbit from Wallops would require `dogleg' maneuvers which, if not impossible, are not practical," the report said.
Wallops offers access to "a large orbital window" between polar and equatorial orbits, the report said. But because commercial demand is just emerging, the eventual private appetite for those orbits is unknown.
For the Pegasus, a rocket launched from a plane flying over the ocean, prime orbits can be achieved from any oceanside airstrip. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Fairfax has shown interest in launching Pegasus from Wallops. The rocket made its maiden flight earlier this month in California.
According to the report, "prevailing no-growth attitudes" on the Eastern Shore could be yet another drawback for the spaceport. Shore residents prefer the rural way of life and have shown little enthusiasm for "progress."
But Paul Berge of the local Economic Development Commission said the shore has the lowest family income in Virginia and a high percentage of substandard housing.
Art Fisher, the county administrator, said the anchors of the local economy - agriculture and tourism - are slumping.
"The economy needs a shot in the arm," Fisher said.
He and Berge agreed: The community would welcome a spaceport.
by CNB