The Future of Space Flight in Virginia

Virginia has a strong legacy in the development of air and space travel. Orville and Wilbur Wright and Samuel Pierpont Langley were among the aviation pioneers during the early 20th century who studied and tested flight technologies in Virginia that resulted in lasting contributions to the advancement of aeronautics and aerospace.

In 1917, the federal government established a research facility named for Langley in Hampton to advance aerodynamic design and aircraft performance for the military. When the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) was created 40 years later, Langley Research Center (LaRC) became its original field center at the start of the U.S. space program.

It was at LaRC that a team of African American women mathematicians determined the “hidden figures” that were essential to the success of early spaceflight. LaRC staff also conducted research into supersonic flight, trained the first crews of astronauts, and constructed simulators and laboratories to explore and develop techniques that enabled the first manned lunar landing. The Viking program was based there in the mid-1970s to begin the exploration of Mars. That initial work led to the recent historic exploratory mission of the “Red Planet” by the unpiloted rover Perseverance and the small robotic helicopter Ingenuity.

Today, LaRC is focused on some of the biggest technical challenges of our time: global climate change, access and expansion of humans into deep space, revolutionizing airplanes, on-demand air transportation, which includes the development of an unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) and advanced air mobility (AAM) systems, and air transportation as a whole. From fundamental research to mission development and operations, officials say LaRC defines, develops, and demonstrates breakthrough systems solutions that will benefit all of humankind.

A couple of hours from LaRC on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility is the agency’s premier location for conducting research using suborbital vehicles – aircraft, scientific balloons, and sounding rockets. Through a partnership with Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA), also known as Virginia Space, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport expands the facility’s capabilities in supporting the launch of orbital vehicles.

In addition to the spaceport, Virginia Space owns and operates the MARS Payload Processing Facility and the MARS Unmanned Systems Test Range at Wallops. Together, they provide low-cost, safe, reliable, and “schedule-friendly” access to space and secure facilities for testing unmanned vehicles for integration into the National Airspace System (NAS).

Virginia continues to play a key role in national security and assured access to space as one of only four states in the United States hosting a spaceport licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch spacecraft into orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.

Last year marked 25 years since the Virginia General Assembly established Virginia Space Flight as a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the 75th anniversary of the Wallops facility. Twenty successful missions have been launched from MARS, including recent cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.