Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

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An aerial view of the launch pads at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) is a commercial space launch facility located at the southern tip of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Delmarva Peninsula south of Chincoteague, Virginia.

[edit] Background

In July 2003, Governors Robert Ehrlich of Maryland and Mark Warner of Virginia signed an agreement that directed the Secretary of Commerce and Trade of Virginia and the Secretary of Business and Economic Development of Maryland to form a working group to develop a concept and implementation plan for joint governance, operation and administration of the commercial spaceport at Wallops Island. The spaceport, then known as the Virginia Space Flight Center, had been developed, with a combination of federal, state and private sector funding, by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA).

[edit] Facilities

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport has two active launch pads. A third was proposed, but never built.

Launch pad 0A (LP-0A) was built for the Conestoga rocket, which made its only flight in 1995.^[1] The launch tower was subsequently demolished in September 2008,^[2] and has now been rebuilt for use by the Orbital Sciences Antares.^[3] The pad modifications for Antares included the construction of a Horizontal Integration Facility for launcher/payload mating and a wheeled transporter/erector that will "roll out and erect the rocket on its launch pad about 24 hours prior to launch."^[3]

Launch pad 0B (LP-0B) became operational in 1999,^[4] and was subsequently upgraded with the construction of a mobile service tower, which was completed in 2004.^[5] It remains active, and is currently used by Minotaur rockets.

A third launch pad at the complex, to be used by HAD rockets, was proposed^[when?] but never used.^[6]

[edit] Launch history

The first rocket to be launched from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport was an Orbital Sciences Minotaur I, at 12:00 GMT on 16 December 2006, with two spacecraft, TacSat-2 for the US Air Force, and GeneSat-1 for NASA.^[7]

Launch	Date (UTC)	Vehicle	Payload	Launch pad	Result	Remarks
1	December 16, 2006 12:00	Minotaur I	TacSat-2 / GeneSat-1	Pad 0B	Success^[7]
2	April 24, 2007 06:48	Minotaur I	NFIRE	Pad 0B	Success^{[citation needed]}
3	August 22, 2008 09:10	ATK ALV X-1	Hy-BoLT and SOAREX VI	Pad 0B	Failure	Went off-course, destroyed by range safety^{[citation needed]}
4	May 19, 2009, 19:55	Minotaur I	TacSat-3	Pad 0B
5	June 30, 2011 03:09	Minotaur I	USAF ORS-1 Satellite	Pad 0B	Success^{[citation needed]}
Scheduled launches
	March 2012	Antares	COTS Demo Mission	Pad 0A		Updated: 2011-05-07
	2012	Antares	2 ISS re-supply missions	Pad 0A		Updated: 2011-05-07^{[citation needed]}
	May 2013	Minotaur V	LADEE	Pad 0B		Updated: 2011-01-03^{[citation needed]}
	2013	Antares	2 ISS re-supply missions	Pad 0A		Updated: 2011-01-03^{[citation needed]}
	2014	Antares	2 ISS re-supply missions	Pad 0A		Updated: 2011-01-03^{[citation needed]}
	2015	Antares	2 ISS re-supply missions	Pad 0A		Updated: 2011-01-03^{[citation needed]}