Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Space, the final frontier for Virginia jobs? It could be.
Wallops Island, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore has now been labeled the best commercial space launch facility in the country.
That according to a study commissioned by the state to monitor the investment in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS).
Gov. Bob McDonnell plans to use the report to push legislation to improve MARS. He says the spaceport currently supports 28,000 jobs and boosting the facility could produce more.
Commercial space flight is a growing industry since NASA ended it’s space shuttle program earlier this year.
CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood says that leaves a lot of room for facilities like MARS on Wallops Island since commercial carriers will need more than one place to launch.
“‘The one advantage Cape Canaveral has over Wallops Island has is that it’s closer to the equator,” Harwood says. “So, you lose a little bit when it comes to getting a payload in orbit.”
NASA is currently trying to encourage private companies to build spacecraft, including manned spacecraft.
The space industry in Virginia is already a $7.6 billion business.
The report on MARS and the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which has one of only four licenses in the U.S. to launch rockets into space, was done by KPMG Corporate Finance.
The space flight authority was created in 1995. Since the Wallops flight facility was first activated in 1945, more than 16,000 rockets have been launched there.
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