WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. - The Accomack County Board of Supervisors is asking NASA to rename the Wallops Flight Facility in honor of one of the Eastern Shore's most accomplished aerospace leaders.
The board unanimously approved a resolution during its July 15 meeting requesting that NASA rename the facility the A. Thomas Young Space Flight Facility.
Young, a native of Wachapreague, built a decades-long career at NASA before becoming a top executive in the aerospace industry. In the resolution, county leaders describe him as a "distinguished citizen and native son" of Accomack County whose service to NASA, Virginia, and the nation merits the honor.
According to the biography attached to the resolution, Young began his NASA career in 1961 at Langley Research Center, where he worked on sounding rockets and spacecraft guidance systems. He later played a key role in the Lunar Orbiter program, which photographed nearly all of the Moon's surface to help identify safe landing sites for the Apollo missions.
Young also served in leadership roles on NASA's Viking Mars program before becoming director of NASA's Planetary Program and later director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. He eventually left NASA to join Martin Marietta, where he became president and chief operating officer before later serving as executive vice president of Lockheed Martin.
Throughout his career, Young received numerous honors, including NASA's Distinguished Service Medal, the Outstanding Leadership Medal, and the Space Foundation's General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.
The resolution formally requests that NASA rename the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island as the A. Thomas Young Space Flight Facility in recognition of his contributions to the nation's space program. The request is not binding, and any decision to rename the federal facility would ultimately rest with NASA.
