goddard space flight center 1 nasa goddard space flight center’s wallops flight facility a view of...
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Goddard Space Flight Center
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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s
Wallops Flight Facility
A View of Wallops
Bill WrobelDirector, Wallops
Flight Facility
October 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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