NASA is initiating a formal environmental assessment of its facilities on Wallops Island, Virginia, with the aim of increasing the number of authorized rocket launches at the site by almost 200%, according to slides and recordings of an April 29 internal meeting viewed by TechCrunch.
The proposed changes could help alleviate congestion at the country’s other spaceports, strained by a rapid increase in launch capacity primarily due to SpaceX. The strain is expected to worsen as companies like Rocket Lab, Relativity, Blue Origin, and others aim to introduce new rockets in the coming years.
The Wallops Island Southern Expansion Environmental Assessment (WISE EA) will study the potential consequences of a significant increase in annual launches from 18 to 52. It will also examine critical changes such as water barge landings of rockets’ first stages and on-site storage of liquid methane, a novel rocket fuel. NASA will collaborate with contractors to conduct acoustic analyses and assess impacts on air emissions, marine life, and local wildlife.
The analysis will also evaluate the construction of up to four new launch pads and the installation of a suborbital launcher conducting up to 30 firings per year.
The proposed expansion includes significant changes in launch frequency and fuel mixes allowed. Currently, only six of the 18 annual launches authorized at WFF involve liquid-fueled rockets, with the rest being solid-propellant rockets. The new analysis would allow 52 launches per year and permit a fuel mix including methalox, a rocket fuel composed of liquid oxygen and liquid methane, favored by next-gen rockets like SpaceX’s Starship, Rocket Lab’s Neutron, Relativity Space’s Terran R, and Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
The increased launch cadence from these companies is a driving force behind the proposed expansion. Rocket Lab, in particular, has selected WFF as the future home for Neutron’s first launch pad and production facility, indicating its importance to the island’s future. The environmental assessment will ensure compliance with environmental regulations and provide a platform for stakeholder input, including the public.
