From Farmville To MARS

Rocket Fuel Tank Will Be Used To Re-supply Space Station
By KEN WOODLEY

FARMVILLE — A 120,000-gallon liquid rocket fuel storage tank was hauled through Farmville Thursday morning on its way to a launch facility that will see the Taurus II rocket power re-supply missions to the international space station.

Not lifting off from Cape Canaveral or anywhere else in Florida, lifting off, instead, from Virginia—Wallops Island, just off the Eastern Shore and not far from Chincoteague. Blasting off into Earth orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, or MARS, from the state-owned launch site.

The gargantuan fuel tank was quite a spectacle for motorists at about 10 a.m. last Thursday, as the fuel tank was maneuvered via the 56-wheel truck transporting it off US 15 and onto the by-pass. All 56 wheels are needed to disburse the extraordinary weight.

The $1 million fuel tank is 124 feet long and 13 feet wide, weighing 230,000 pounds (empty) and seemed to perform magic as it negotiated through a 90- degree turn, in traffic.

With the truck, the entire vehicle was 154-feet long and it filled the Dowdy’s Corner intersection after exiting the by-pass to continue northward through Buckingham.

“It’s pretty big, pretty exciting,” Laura Naismith told The Herald.

Orbital Sciences Corporation, of Loudoun, was selected by NASA for a $1.9 billion contract to design and build a brand new rocket to re-supply the international space station, said Naismith, director of government relations and public affairs for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and MARS.

The fuel tank will be one of 50 placed at the launch site to fuel the rocket prior
to the eight contracted re-supply missions between 2011 and 2015.

Commercial space launches, Naismith said, are "a whole new business opportunity for Virginia" and the "General Assembly and the Governor have been very supportive and very enthusiastic."

A demonstration launch should be held next June, prior to the first re-supply mission, which could occur in November or December of 2011.

Rocket launches are nothing new for Wallops Island, the oldest launch site in the nation, and the precursor to NASA launched monkeys into space from Wallops Island to see if they could survive. MARS has existed at the Wallops Island site since 1995 and the commonwealth has invested some $26 million in new infrastructure for the facility, which is now a $50-million launch complex, according to Naismith.

The rocket’s journey into Earth orbit won’t be as long as the fuel tank’s trip, which began over two months ago in Mexico, on its way to the six-square miles of Wallops Island.

A Pennsylvania company was contracted to construct the fuel tank and its plant is in Mexico. The fuel tank has been on the road for more than eight weeks and should conclude its journey at the end of this week.

"We’re anxious to see it here," said Sheila Taylor, Construction Manager for the project.

The rocket-sized fuel tank was certainly seen in Prince Edward, Farmville and Buckingham last Thursday.