Along Virginia’s Eastern Shore sits Wallops Island, a 6-square-mile barrier island that’s a hub for rocket science.

Recently, RVA757 Connects, a nonprofit committed to making Richmond and Hampton Roads a megaregion, showcased Wallops Island, Virginia Spaceport Authority and Rocket Lab’s contribution to rockets, aerospace and the region.

Run by Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, Wallops Island serves Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and private companies such as California-based Rocket Lab.

With three launch pads, Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is one of only five sites in the U.S. licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation for vertical launches to orbit, according to its website. It is one of three East Coast sites capable of launching to mid-inclination orbits.

The regional spaceport has a 24-hour rapid call-up launch for defense needs and is the alternate site for missions of national importance, including national security and human space flight, said Sean Mulligan, Virginia Spaceport Authority’s deputy executive director and chief operating officer. The spaceport is a backup for Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Wallops Island’s aerospace cluster provides a $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion annual economic impact through aerospace industry, national security and science, technology, engineering and mathematics education support and research and development opportunities, he said.

“It’s a crown jewel for the commonwealth that not a lot of folks know about,” he said.

With headquarters located in downtown Norfolk, the Virginia Spaceport Authority is modeled after the Virginia Port Authority and began in 1995 as a partnership with Old Dominion University, Mulligan noted.

Wallops’ aerospace cluster added an average of 3,300 to 4,600 jobs each year to the Virginia economy, according to a 2018-2022 study by ODU’s Dragas Center for the space authority. Jobs also paid more than two times the average in the area.

The regional spaceport is not just for launching commercial and federal rockets; it is a STEM educational facility.

“I want the spaceport to be an educational hub, a recognized asset for the commonwealth,” he added.

Mulligan emphasized that the education aspect is not a side project but a priority with a director of educational programs to reach students in kindergarten through college.

“It’s purpose driven. It’s important to us. It’s part of why we exist,” he said.

For its part, Rocket Lab has proved to be a worthy user of the facility in the past five years. In 2023, Rocket Lab launched three successful missions from Launch Complex 2 at Virginia’s MARS site. The company also uses a launch facility in New Zealand.

Rocket Lab’s first launch in the U.S. was the successful Electron launch in January from the MARS pad carrying the Hawkeye 360 satellite that was built in Virginia, said Aaron Kuipers, director of East Coast test and launch operations for Rocket Lab USA.

Next on Rocket Lab’s agenda at Wallops Island is to manufacture and launch the new reusable Neutron rocket. The 140-foot launch vehicle is designed to lift 13 tons of payload. Neutron’s unique design, materials, propulsion and reusability make the rocket ideal for access to space, Kuipers said.

Working with Virginia Spaceport, Rocket Lab is constructing Launch Complex 3 and the 250,000-square-foot Neutron production complex that will sit on a 28-acre site adjacent to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

The complex will support Neutron production, assembly and integration and is expected to bring up to 250 highly skilled jobs to the region. A launch pad for Neutron will be at the southern end of Wallops Island near Rocket Lab’s existing launch pad for the Electron rocket, Kuipers said.

Currently, the company has 19 people employed at the site and should be adding about another 25 jobs by the end of next year, he added.

Kuiper said the reason the company came to Wallops Island is the strong support from NASA, local partners, Virginia Spaceport Authority and the commonwealth.

“We could not have done this on our own,” Kuipers said of the projects.