![]() ![]() The establishment of Wallops paralleled in many ways the establishment of Langley Lab. Initially, conditions at Wallops Island were primitive: 2 Boats brought people and supplies from a dock on Assawoman Creek until 1958, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created and a causeway was finally constructed. Temporary structures housed people and experiments for 18 months. The first rocket was launched on July 4, 1945. ![]() The hunt club was forced to sell, and Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory acquired 1,000 acres on the southern half for its Auxiliary Flight Research Station. The US Navy was already planning to use the northern half of Wallops Island to test ordnance. Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wallops Station and the Creation of an American Space Program Langley set up initial facilities on the barrier island at Wallops, and modern space launch pads are located there now (separate from the main air base) A site on the mainland near the air base would have required purchasing too much land or flown too close to the clubhouse of the Wallops Island Association hunt club, so Langley set up operations on the barrier island. Chincoteague and Assateague islands were rejected because test flights would cross Chincoteague Inlet, which was also used by local boats. There were four choices for a test range near the Chincoteague Naval Auxiliary Air Station. Wallops offered undeveloped shoreline for tracking test flights of rockets Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), (Figure 3) NASA's launch facility could have been located in North Carolina, if the Marines at Cherry Point had welcomed the scientists in 1945 The barrier island, named after John Wallop (who had patented the land in 1672), could be accessed by a 2-mile causeway. It was also near an existing military facility that could provide logistical support, the Chincoteague Naval Auxiliary Air Station (today's "Main Base" at Wallops Flight Facility). The Marines opposed sharing the area with Langley's research scientists and the barrier islands were difficult to reach, so Langley went with its second choice: Wallops Island. That site was close to Langley and the Marine base at Cherry Point, and the undeveloped oceanfront offered the needed 50-mile test range free from interference so scientists could observe missiles from shore. Langley needed a field station to test guided missiles outside of wind tunnels, and initially considered Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Little Joe on launcher at Wallops Island (1959)Ītlantic Warning Areas defined by the US Navy make Wallops an attractive site for testing rockets now Wallops was a competitor of Cape Canaveral in the late 1950's Wallops Flight Facility, on Wallops Island in Accomack County near Chincoteague, was developed as a rocket testing site at the end of World War II to support the research at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now Langley Research Center) in Hampton. Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), North Wallops Island Unmanned Aerial Systems Airstrip Environmental Assessment Pads for rocket launches are located on the southern tip of the barrier island, not at the Wallops Main Base or on the mainland Space: The Final Frontier Starts at Wallops Island Space: The Final Frontier Starts at Wallops Island
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