MARS is Open for Business


NASA

A sunrise launch this morning of a Minotaur rocket carrying two satellites inaugurated operations at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Island facility on the Virginia coast. Growing operations at this spaceport, which may include space station resupply launches and suborbital tourist flights along with small to medium sized satellite launches, could be a boost to the Eastern Shore's economy and to the space industry of the whole Mid-Atlantic region.

I drove down late Friday afternoon and stayed overnight in nearby Pocomoke City, MD, rising early this morning to go out to the public viewing area on Assateague Island, a few miles from the launch site. The rocket was visible as a rising tongue of white flame with a trailing smoke plume which started to curl as the rocket arced high overhead and shed its first stage. One of the most impressive aspects of viewing a launch from a few miles away is how you hear no sound from the rising rocket for a number of seconds before the roaring sound reaches your location. The crowd gathered at the sandy beach site expressed awe and approval as the successful launch took place. This Virginian-Pilot article includes images from the Assateague Island viewing site.