TEMPERANCEVILLE, VA. - A significant step was taken Monday for more rocket launches coming to Wallops Island. Rocket lab broke ground on their neutron rocket manufacturing facility and launch site with Governor Glenn Youngkin on hand. According to Virginia lawmaker Rob Bloxom, the process to get Rocket Lab to come to Accomack County was an extremely competitive process. Bloxom hopes more businesses and industries will follow.
“This is a game changer, this is huge. We have been working on this for a couple years and Rocket Lab deciding to put their facility here is the start of probably a lot more businesses clustering up to come here,” Bloxom said.
Local businesses will likely get a boost not only from the 250 jobs the facility will bring, but also from more frequent launches. Kaitlyn Miller works at Ocean Deli Pizza, near Wallops, and says each time there is a launch, the restaurant is busy.
“The base is already a really big portion of our customers so I feel like with this new company being brought in, or this new business being brought in we are going to have a lot more business and a lot more tourists come through. We already have a big portion of tourists come through and the cars normally line up down the causeway,” Miller said.
According to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck the electron rocket will be launched from Wallops. When the manufacturing facility is complete, it will produce the neutron rocket, which will then also launch from the island.
“We can reach a number of orbits that we need for our customers. It is also a wonderful sight in the fact that it is quite quiet and we already have a launch pad here and some facilities here so it was really the natural selection for us,” Beck said.
According to Beck, construction on the manufacturing complex will begin with small facilities in the next few weeks. The entire site could be operational in two years.