Accomack Man Dies in Car Crash

A man died early Saturday morning in a vehicle accident that left his car submerged in a pond on Winterville Road, north of Anns Cove Road, State Police said.

When police arrived to the scene, they discovered a 1973 Plymouth Roadrunnner that had run off to the left side of the road and submerged in a pond, according to State Police Spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Anaya.

The driver, 48-year-old Lester Wade McMahan of the 24000 block of Savannah Road in Hallwood, died prior to the car being submerged, Anaya said.

Police determined that the car ran off the road, overturned and landed in the pond between 3 and 5 a.m.

A passer by discovered the half-submerged vehicle and called State Police.

Anaya said it is not known if alcohol played a factor in the accident.

from Jennifer Jiggetts @ the Virginian-Pilot

DelMarVa Post Offices Face Possible Closure

Well, it’s really MarVa post offices. Curiously, no Delaware post offices are under consideration for closure from the US Postal Service.

The Eastern Shore PO’s “under study” are:

Assawoman	VA		Massey	MD
Betterton	MD		Sanford	VA
Bivalve	MD		Saxis	VA
Craddockville	VA		Sherwood	MD
Crocheron	MD		Townsend	VA
Ewell	MD		Tyaskin	MD
Harborton	VA		Tylerton	MD
Henderson	MD		Upper Fairmount	MD
Hillsboro	MD		Willis Wharf	VA
Locustville	VA		Withams	VA

For a full list of the Maryland post offices “under study”, CLICK HERE.

For a full list of the Virginia post offices “under study”, CLICK HERE.

If you’re from Delaware, send a thank you note to Joe Biden.

NASA Launches RockSat-X

NASA launched a Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket from its Wallops Flight Facility this morning.

The rocket, carrying experiments from four universities, launched at 7:58 a.m. after the event was delayed because officials were waiting for boats in the water near the facility to move, according to the NASA webcast.

The experiments were developed by undergraduates through a program with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium called RockSat-X. The students attend the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Wyoming and the University of Puerto Rico.

To learn more about the sounding rocket program, visit the NASA site.

from Cindy Clayton @ the Virginian-Pilot

NASA Launching Rockets from Wallops Island Today

NASA is planning to launch two Black Brant V/Terrier-Improved Orion rockets today as part of a study of the ionosphere.

The launch window is from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to a news release from the space agency. The rockets will be launched 15 seconds apart and residents around the Wallops Island area may be able to see them.

The launch also can be viewed online via webcast, beginning at 8:30 a.m. on the NASA website. The Visitor Center also will open at 8:30 a.m. for launch viewing.

Status updates also are available at (757) 824-2050.

from the Virginian-Pilot / AP

States Step Up Roles In Space

The 62-foot-tall rocket that stands on the launch pad on Wallops Island, off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, encapsulates much about the near future of space flight in the United States. It is a future where the federal government is a major player—and a paying customer—but many of the day-to-day duties are left to private companies and state agencies.

The Minotaur 1 is a commercially built rocket, but it owes much to the federal government. Its payload is an Air Force satellite. Many of its components, including the initial motor that will propel the rocket from zero to 3,300 mph in less than a minute, are leftovers from decommissioned Minuteman missiles. The launching site for this mission is NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, best remembered for putting two monkeys into space in early tests for the Mercury missions in 1959 and 1960. Lately, NASA’s launches at Wallops have been modest—mostly weather balloons and research rockets.

But the state governments of Virginia and Maryland are bringing more ambitious projects back to the remote island. Since 2006, four Minotaur 1 rockets have taken off from the states’ jointly operated Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), which leases facilities from NASA. This week’s 12-minute rocket flight will launch an imaging satellite aimed at helping U.S. troops in Afghanistan and other trouble spots in the region. 

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