PowerPoint Presentation

National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationWallops Flight FacilityBruce Underwood, Deputy Director

Reaching FartherApril 12, 2016

1Thank you for having me here today, we have quite the crowd here today and for those that may not know as much about our current activities, this is just a very brief snapshot of just a few missions happening at Wallops.2016 is going to be a big year at WallopsIm excited to talk about what weve been doing and what weve got planned this year.

To start, were currently waiting on weather on the other side of the Earth. (NEXT SLIDE)

Watching and waiting in New ZealandAround-the-world mission is flight ready in New Zealand

Potential for 100-day mission; will be a scientific game-changer

Awaiting launchable weather

2Our balloon program is healthy11 flights planned in 2016one complete so farWe have another test of our Super Pressure Balloon in April, launching from New Zealand, where we aim to achieve 100 or more days of flightThe super pressure balloon is designed to fly for long duration at stable, near constant float altitudes above 99.5 percent of the Earths atmosphereIts an exciting capabilityone that could make balloon platforms competitive with orbital platforms for certain types of science instrumentsTRANSITION: Many of you have seen our aircraft and our rocket launches, but my guess is far fewer have seen a balloon launchlet me show you what that looks like (NEXT SLIDE)Our scientific balloon team has yet another busy year and were hoping it will be one for the record books!Team is in New Zealand to prepare for the launch of a Super Pressure Balloon. Were hoping this balloon will shatter the record books and become the first 100-day balloon mission. The current record is a little over 55 days. This particular balloon is quite large, in fact we could fit approximately 92 Goodyear Blimps inside this balloon. No rest for the weary, as theyll launch missions from all over the globe this year, including New Mexico and Antarctica. COSI is a balloon-borne soft gamma-ray (0.2-10 MeV) telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission and gamma-ray polarization. Transition: Speaking of launching, we have had a big announcement last week regarding our sounding rocket program. (Next Slide)

Spring 2015 Flight Path

Airborne Science3 Major Upcoming Science CampaignsAtmospheric Carbon and Transport-America (ACT-America)

North Atlantic Aerosols & Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES)

ObseRvations of Aerosols Above Clouds and Their IntEractionS (ORACLES)

ORACLES

ACT-America: Measuring Carbon in the atmosphere over eastern U.S. (Penn State, CO State, LaRC) April-Oct.NAAMES: Impact of cloud-based aerosols on climate (Oregan State & LaRC) May/June- ORACLES: Study of burning biomass over Africa (ARC & LaRC) June-Oct.4

Sounding Rockets14 flights planned in 20162 local launches conducted in March Next launch: June 23 (RockOn)

Last week, we awarded $199.5 million contact to Orbital ATK

514 sounding rocket launches are planned in 2016 from Virginia and worldwide locationsFour are completeWe launched two in March, including a technology demonstration. One example Ill highlightlast year, a sounding rocket mission (the Extreme Ultraviolet Normal Incidence Spectrograph or EUNIS) was recognized as Discover magazines #14 of 100 scientific breakthroughs in 2015 for confirming the existence of nanoflares on the suns surface. Missions remaining this year will support technology demonstrations, numerous science disciplines, and education. (NEXT SLIDE)

Peregrine Rocket Motor Test

New Opportunity? Triton

Navys new program for providing persistent maritime surveillance

Wallops is supporting the Navys environmental planning as a potential basing site

TRITON INFO GOES HERE7

Inspiring the Next Generation

STEM Takes Flight held at Wallops April 6-8

It is getting to be that time of year when we have lots of students and interns on our facility. Its an exciting time because we get to see the spark of excitement and amazement in those students eyes.Last week, we held STEM Takes Flight, a program for Community College Students funded by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium. The students are currently participating in a pilot GIS Service Learning online course offered by Thomas Nelson Community College. The students are collecting Near Infrared and HD near infrared imagery and true color imagery using Phantom 2 and Phantom 3 quad-copters. We are expecting to have approximately 30 interns on the facility this summer. In addition, well have about 120 high school students from Virginia on site as part of the Virginia Space Coast Scholars. This is an educational opportunity provided by the Virginia General Assembly. It has proven to be a great platform for students to springboard their STEM careers. CONCLUSION: I think she shows the breadth of missions we have at Wallops. And to conclude, Id like to show you video of a recent motor burn taken from a quadcopter similar to this.8