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Agreement Reached For Commercial Space Flights Out Of Virginia

By: Elliott Francis // September 17, 2012
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An aerial view of NASA's Wallops Flight facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, from which a local company plans to launch rockets.
NASA
An aerial view of NASA's Wallops Flight facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, from which a local company plans to launch rockets.

Virginia's Commercial Space Flight Authority has reached an agreement with a local company on plans to launch rockets from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the agreement this week with Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation.

Back in 2008, the commonwealth partnered with that company to make improvements to the spaceport located on Virginia's Eastern Shore. That upgrade is expected to be completed later this month.

The new agreement calls for Orbital to launch 10 flights from the facility, including eight resupply missions to the International Space Station. The state will pay to complete additional improvements at the spaceport to support the missions.

Under the agreement, the state's Commercial Space Flight Authority will own and operate all assets that are not specific to Orbital's missions and can be used for other vendors.

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