Mikulski Tours Wallops In Advance Of Major Launch

Days after the most recent rocket launch from Wallops Island, located south of Assateague, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) this week toured the NASA flight facility to see first-hand the preparations for a major launch event later this year.

Around 6:40 a.m. last Thursday, a NASA rocket carrying 17 educational experiments arched its way across the early morning sky over the Lower Shore, reaching an altitude of around 73 miles before falling harmlessly into the ocean off the coast of the Wallops Island Flight Facility. The two-stage Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital rocket carried experiments built by university instructors and students from across the country developed through programs conducted with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia.

Later this summer, NASA will conduct one of its largest launches ever from Wallops, the 133-foot tall Antares rocket, which will carry supplies and tools to the International Space Station. As chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, Mikulski toured the Wallops launch facility on Monday to check on the progress of the complicated launch preparations for the Antares rocket.

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