Wallops Island Launch Center, Virginia

Wallops Island is one of the busiest atmosphere and space launch sites in the country, but is used primarily for small rockets, and research purposes. It is associated with NASA's Goddard Center, which has three separate sites on the Virginia coast, totaling 6,200 acres. Most of the facilities are at the Wallops Flight Test Facility Main Base, including a research airport with three runways, aircraft hangars, assembly buildings, tracking station antennas, and research labs. Wallops Island's launch range is five miles south, on the coast, and has a battery of launch pads where over 16,000 launches have taken place since the opening of the installation in 1945. Many of the launches are sounding rockets, which are expendable data recording and measuring rockets, launched to study a specific aspect of the atmosphere or space.