By Alissa Smith
Virginia Statehouse News

RICHMOND — Virginians who want to see a spacecraft take off into the wild blue yonder will no longer need to travel to Florida’s Cape Canaveral to see the event.

A spaceport on Virginia’s Eastern Shore may now become the only spaceport in the United States to send crafts up to the International Space Station after the shuttle Endeavor takes off on the last flight from Florida in April.

The spaceport, officially the Wallops Flight Facility, is owned by NASA. However the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport leases the land and runs the general operations of space flights.

The facility was established in 1945 as a research center. It is now NASA’s primary suborbital research facility, and it provides launch facilities to commercial, governmental and scientific entities, according to Wallops' website.

In late May, Wallops will be launching a satellite for the Air Force that will provide soldiers and commanders with a more effective global-positioning satellite system. Instead of simply using map points, the satellite will provide information on where certain minerals or chemical compounds are in the immediate area.

Laurie Naismith, director of Government and Public Affairs for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, said that she hopes the launches will drive visitors to Virginia as they do in Florida.

Naismith is working with hospitality, tourism and economic development specialists on the Eastern Shore to help take advantage of the novelty that a space launch brings to a region.

“The umbrella theme has become “America’s first Space Coast” because this is where the nation's space program was started 65 years ago,” said Naismith.

She said that NASA sent monkeys into space from Wallops as part of its research to determine if humans could survive in space.

Delegate John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, chairman of the Virginia Aerospace Advisory Council, said that with the last federally funded shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral planned for April, the Wallops spaceport will become the next place to launch rockets.

“When these Taurus II rockets take off — these things are 130 feet tall, they’re 13 stories high — they make a big boom when they take off,” said Cosgrove. “It’s not going to be a show as big as a shuttle, but it’s going to be pretty spectacular, and it’s going to be a lot of noise.”

The Taurus II rocket will be taking food and necessities to the International Space Station. Naismith said that eventually it will be used to send a multitude of items, such as scientific projects, into space and not just to the ISS.

Rockets to wild ponies

The event may be spectacular, but Donna Bozza, director of Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Corp., has to find a way to incorporate the space age with the brand of eco-tourism her group wants to promote.

“However this comes off, it needs to fit in with our brand, and however we do it, it will be unique to this region,” said Bozza. “When you come here for the launch you will be experiencing the authentic Eastern Shore experience along side of the futuristic space age event.”

She said the Eastern Shore isn’t going to become a Disney World because they want to continue with eco-tourism that showcases the rural habitats surrounding the spaceport.

“We have a really unique way of doing this. We could say that we’ll be the Cape Canaveral of the north, but really we won’t,” said Bozza.

However, she said that the area has seen a significant increase in tourism dollars when an event or activity takes place at Wallops.

Accomack County Administrator Stephen Miner said that as a whole, the county is very excited for this new phase of rocketry at Wallops Island.

“There are likely to be some problems, like traffic, from the expansion of the tourism. This is not to mean that we see this as a negative. There is quite the expectation for it being a very good thing for the shore,” said Miner.

He said that a lot of people around the state are trying to make space tourism as successful as possible.

The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to the famed Chincoteague wild ponies, is excited about its working relationship with NASA at Wallops Island.

Lou Hinds, the refuge manager at Chincoteague, said that his policy regarding tourism for the launches is to open up the parking lots at the refuge for people to come and view the launch.

“We can afford the American public the opportunity to view the launch at a reasonable safe distance but with a spectacular view,” said Hinds.

Lynne Lochen, tourism specialist at the Virginia Tourism Corp., said that the Wallops tourism program is in the early stages of development. But, she said she hope to capitalize on the fascination with space travel.

“It doesn’t have to be Florida,” said Lochen. “We can change the mentality and get people just as excited to come here because there has always been an interest in what is going on at Wallops.”