WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.- Rocket Lab has selected Wallops Island, Virginia as the location for its first launch and manufacturing site for it's new 8-ton reusable rocket. It is expected that Rocket Lab’s Neutron Production Complex could create up to 250 jobs in Virginia. The estimated 250,000 square foot complex will be built on a 28-acre plot of land next to the Wallops Island Flight Facility and will be home to rocket production, assembly, integration facility in addition to a designated launch pad for the Neutron rocket on the southern end of Wallops Island.
Rocket Lab says it expects to begin construction shortly. Accomack county leaders have told WBOC that it would be the biggest building ever built in Accomack County. It was in 2021 that Accomack County officials re-zoned the piece of land where this facility would be built with the chairman for the county Board of Supervisors telling WBOC that he welcomed space travel companies.
Back in January, then Governor Ralph Northam announced Accomack County was a finalist for the Rocket Lab facility. With the project slated for Accomack County, Rocket Lab will expand to two launch pads on Wallops Island, one to support the Electron launch vehicle, and another for Neutron.
Being that it is a reusable rocket, Neutron is designed to land on the launch pad after it's mission, then returned to the production complex for "refurbishment and re-flight".
Neutron would be the first carbon composite large launch vehicle in the world, "powered by in-house designed" and made with "Archimedes reusable rocket engines" to allow for complex launches and missions.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin on the Rocket Lab announcement said "Virginia’s industrial and innovation ecosystem and skilled workforce make the Commonwealth an optimal location for industry leaders like Rocket Lab. This important project reinforces the Eastern Shore’s legacy as an aerospace hub that offers the infrastructure for manufacturing and developing new technologies, and we look forward to a long partnership with Rocket Lab.”
The NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director, David Pierce, said, “NASA’s only owned and operated launch range at Wallops Flight Facility supports small- and medium-class orbital rocket launches and continues to grow our nation’s space economy. Rocket Lab’s decision will bring more good-paying, high-tech jobs to the Wallops region and proves our industry partners recognize NASA’s spirit of relentless innovation along the Eastern Shore and throughout the country.”
