1st Stage of Taurus 2 Arrives at Space Island

The 90-foot-long first stage of Orbital Sciences' Taurus II rocket has arrived at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. after a journey that began Oct. 8 in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, continued across the Atlantic Ocean to Wilmington and finally traveled Delmarva's highways to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

A team of Ukrainian rocket engineers arrived at Wallops Flight Facility last month in advance of the rocket stage and will be working there on the Taurus II project, reports DELMARVA. Space Fronteir Foundation Advocate Rick Tumlinson dubbed the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport as 'Space Island' earlier this year.

Media (including bloggers) from throughout Virginia and the nation are being invited to a Rocket Science 101 session in April 2011, with a subsequent visit the nation's leading FAA-licensed commercial spaceport in May 2011. The purpose of the session and launch pad visit is to enable journalists and writers to communicate effectively about the future missions to the International Space Station and the Moon to be launched from the Commonwealth of Virginia.