Dirt Turned for New Virginia Launch Pad

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) told over 100 attending the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launch pad groundbreaking Monday on Wallops Island, Virginia that the event marked “another era of discovery” similar to when Capt. John Smith first set foot on the Eastern Shore four centuries ago. Here on the Eastern Shore, people used to earn their living off the land or off the water...Now they are also going to earn their living off of space."

Mikulski called the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops “a global center...an international center for research and discovery.” MORE from WMDT-TV and DelMarVa.com.

The ceremony included remarks from Mikulski, NASA Acting Administrator Christopher J. Scolese, Virginia Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Transportation David W. Smith, Orbital Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David W. Thompson, Goddard Space Flight Center Director Robert D. Strain and Virginia Space Flight Authority Chairman Vincent Boles. Several other state and local elected officials were in attendance as well.