Most of the launches are suborbital and focus on educational and research programs. In fact, more than 16,000 rockets have been launched from Wallops Island since 1945, but none has drawn the attention of Antares. Those who work at Wallops Island joke that even people living on the Eastern Shore are surprised to learn about rocket launches there. The site is near Maryland and just south of Chincoteague Island, which attracts thousands of tourists each summer for an annual wild pony swim made famous by the 1947 novel 'Misty of Chincoteague.' The Eastern Shore is dominated by forests and farmland, and Wallops Island's isolated nature, with marshland to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, has also made it home to a Navy surface warfare combat centre. The Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's rural Eastern Shore is small in comparison to major NASA centres like those in Florida, California and Texas. In that short period of time, Wallops Island will transition from a little-known launch pad for small research rockets to a major player in the U.S. Orbital officials say that should occur about 10 minutes after liftoff. The goal of the launch isn't to connect with the space station, but to make sure the rocket works and that a simulated version of a cargo ship that will dock with the space station on future launches separates into orbit. If all goes as planned, the unmanned rocket's practice payload will be vaulted into orbit from Wallops Island before burning up in the atmosphere on its return to Earth several months later.

plans to conduct the first test launch of its Antares rocket under a NASA program in which private companies deliver supplies to the International Space Station. On one of Virginia's small barrier islands, a NASA facility that operates in relative obscurity outside scientific circles is preparing to be thrust into the spotlight.

Nasa wallops rocket launch