October 17, 2018, Virginia Space and Rocket Lab held a groundbreaking at NASA on Wallops Island. When commenting on the site selection process, Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck stated, “Wallops was the ‘clear winner’ for several reasons. We’ve got a very aggressive time scale to build the pad, and Wallops had a lot of the team and infrastructure in place ready for us.” The night of the groundbreaking, the Accomack County Board of Supervisors approved a lease to enable Rocket Lab to become the first tenant on Aerospace Gateway in the Wallops Research Park. Six weeks later, Wallops Research Park Leadership Council approved the final site design drawings. Lab is slated to hire a minimum of 30 full time staff with the first launches scheduled for the third quarter of 2019. They anticipate one launch per month. Wallops was picked after an exhaustive nationwide search for a launch facility. It was chosen over Cape Canaveral in Florida, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Alaska’s Pacific Spaceport Complex.

The Wallops Research Park was developed through foresight and investment by a cross functional team consisting of local, regional, state and federal partners with the goal of providing infrastructure able to capitalize on commercial aerospace opportunities, providing for expansion of well-paying jobs. For more information on available sites within the Wallops Research Park click here.