nasa goddard space flight center’s wallops flight facility

Goddard Space Flight Center

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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s

Wallops Flight FacilityA View of Wallops

Bill WrobelDirector, Wallops

Flight FacilityOctober 3, 2012

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Wallops Flight Facility Snapshot • Facility:

• >6000 acres on VA’s Eastern Shore• Established in 1945 • Assets: >$1.2B

• Mission: Provide capabilities & services to enable science, technology, and education from space• Suborbital & small orbital “research carriers”• Mission operations (Research Range, orbital tracking)• Technology development• Earth science research• Educational flight projects

• Economic Impact: • NASA Budget: ~$218M (FY12)• NASA Workforce: 270 Civil Servants, ~800 contractors• Tenant Workforce: ~600 personnel • National Impact: ~$400M annually, >3100 jobs

Wallops Mission

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Sounding Rocket Program

• 20 missions using 8 different vehicle configurations conducted from 4 launch sites during FY12– 25 missions scheduled for FY13

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Recent Sounding Rocket Mission Highlights

• ATREX – Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment– 5 rockets launched on 80 second

intervals– Study of upper atmosphere jet

stream

• IRVE 3 – Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment– Technology demonstration of

deployed inflatable decelerator for atmospheric entry

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Balloon Program

• 9 successful missions conducted from 3 launch sites during FY12– Includes test flight of SF-490

balloon film– Includes test flight of

Wallops Arc Second Pointer

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New Wallops Aircraft

• C-23 Sherpa – supporting airborne science

• UH-1H Helicopter – providing Launch Range surveillance & clearance– 3-year loan from LaRC

• T-34 Mentor – providing chase plane support for Global Hawks

• C-130 Hercules (coming soon) – To provide logistics & possibly science missions

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Hurricane & Severe Storm Sentinel (HS-3)

• Global Hawk UAS flown from WFF during September to conduct hurricane studies– 1st of 3-year program

• Wallops Global Hawk Operations Center under construction at WFF for future campaigns

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ER-2 Operations At Wallops

• DFRC’s ER-2 at WFF in September to support Minimum Anticipated Biological Effect Level (MABEL)

• Included flights over eastern & mid-western U.S.

• Instruments included GSFC’s CATS & CPL

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ISS CREAM

• WFF managing an SMD-sponsored ISS experiment– U of MD’s Cosmic Ray

Energetics & Mass (CREAM)

• Will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9– Payload readiness date:

9/2014

CREAM Interface Location on JEM EF

(EFU2)

JEM EF

CREAM Instrument Structure

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Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD)

• WFF supporting an OCT-sponsored program to demonstrate planetary reentry using inflatable structures

• Test article dropped from balloon, and accelerated using rocket– 4 flights from Hawaii in 2014-5

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Highlights of Wallops Education in 2012

Wallops Rocket Academy for Teachers and Students (WRATS)

Wallops Balloon Experience for Education (WBEE)

RockOn!

HASP

FIRST Robotics

University , Community College and High School Internships

HS3 Workshop

Take a Child to Work

SEEC

9/19/12

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Major Research Range Activities

• Operationally Responsive Space-3 (ORS-3)– Minotaur I launch for Operationally

Responsive Space Office– Launch date in between July-

October 2013

• Lunar Atmosphere & Dust Experiment Explorer (LADEE)– Lunar orbiting spacecraft launched

on Minotaur V in Aug. 2013– Instruments managed by GSFC

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Antares

• Preparations continue for initial flights of Antares from WFF to resupply cargo to the ISS– Orbital Sciences began vehicle

development at WFF in Spring 2011– Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

(MARS) turned over the new launch complex to Orbital last week

• Schedule– Fueling testing planned during October– Hot Fire Test expected in November– 1st launch possible before end of

December

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Pad 0A Redevelopment

Before

After

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Antares Processing in the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF)

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Antares Rollout and Transporter Erector Launcher Operations

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Cygnus Processing in H-100/Payload Processing Facility

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Recent Beach Replenishment

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