Spaceport investment paying off for Virginia

There are plenty of reasons why Orbital Sciences Corp. chose the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport  (MARS) for its launching pad - starting with familiarity and location. But it could only settle at Wallops Island because the facility is still there, available to send rockets into space. For that, the company can thank the forward-thinking and investments of the governments of Virginia and Maryland, not to mention a university named Old Dominion.

Here's the history: NASA was considering closing its facility at Wallops Island after its mission fell out of favor during and before the Clinton administration. Oktay Baysal, dean of ODU's Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology, picks up the story in an e-mail: "More than a decade ago, we at ODU dreamed, conceptualized and convinced the state to put together the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, and we appointed one of our professors, Billie Reed, to be the director."  MARS is a direct result of that dream and Billie Reed is still a part of our college.