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Since the historic moon walk more than a half-century ago, many Americans have grown rather blasé about advances in space travel. Our attention tends to lag between the periodic release of stunning photos from the million-miles-from-home Webb Space Telescope and occasional high-profile events such as the recent return of astronauts whose 10-day trip aboard the International Space Station stretched into a Gilligan’s Island-like adventure of nine months. But there are other exciting developments occurring regularly in space travel, including in Virginia at NASA Langley in Hampton and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island.
The Wallops facility could gain an even larger role under a bill introduced by Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat. He teamed with Republican Sen.
Dan Sullivan of Arkansas and Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico to co-sponsor the ASTRO Act , short for the Alleviating Spaceport Traffic by Rewarding Operators Act. As the name implies, the ASTRO Act would send federal dollars to non-government spaceports to help expand their capacity to handle more space launches and reentries.
At the moment, there’s a bottleneck inhibiting the growth of the space industry, and the bill would provide facilities up to $250,000 per launch or re-entry, with an annual limit of $2.5 million. The congressional delegations from both Virginia and North Carolina should support this worthwhile investment.
As residents in both states can attest from their sightings of rockets rising above the skyline from time to time, Wallops is an important part of our region — and it’s paying off handsomely for the economy, especially on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. From 2018 to 2022, Wallops added an average of 3,300 to 4,600 jobs a year to the Virginia economy, according to a 2023 study by the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy at Old Dominion University. That’s an impressive number, and all the more so when you consider those years included the economy-throttling COVID-19 pandemic.
By 2030, the annual economic impact of Wallops activities is expected to top $2 billion. The creation of new, high-paying jobs at Wallops generates other jobs as well — resulting in the addition of about 2.2 jobs for every one aerospace or defense job, according to the study.
The growth of the aerospace industry around Wallops is a boon to Eastern Shore counties. In the fourth quarter of 2022, annual wages in defense and aerospace professions at Wallops were over $110,000, the ODU study found. That’s a major injection of prosperity in an area with higher levels of poverty than Virginia as a whole, and success at Wallops also boosts the economic health of communities that host aerospace and defense offices across the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia as well as neighboring states.
Additionally, as we’ve noted previously, growth in the space industry brings benefits in science education in area schools and colleges — education that advances learning and economic growth in other fields as well. Sign up for Viewpoints, an opinion newsletter The General Assembly had the foresight 30 years ago to establish the Virginia Space Authority to develop the state’s aerospace industry, and judicious investments — such as $20 million in 2023 to expand a launch pad at Wallops to accommodate larger rockets — has given the commonwealth a large stake in the future of space travel. “Space has proven to be the next frontier in terms of strategic and economic growth for the U.
S., and the coming years will be critical to securing our future in the space realm,” Sen. Warner said in an announcement about the ASTRO ACT.
“This legislation will help us address the urgent need to ramp up operations at successful spaceports, allowing for more frequent launches and further exploration in space.” At the moment, there are 20 spaceports in 10 states, and expanding successful facilities such as Wallops is essential to securing the nation’s future in space as global competition expands. Virginia, as the home of major public and private aerospace and defense facilities, is an ideal place to help launch that vision.
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