NASA Has Open House

The public is invited to see the research that is driving the excitement surrounding NASA's Wallops Flight Facility during an open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 5.

Gates will open at 9:30 a.m. The event will be held rain or shine.

In recognition of its 65th anniversary, NASA Wallops, along with many of its customers and partners that conduct activities at the facility, will have exhibits and demonstrations of the research and operations at one of the nation's oldest launch ranges.

Bill Wrobel, director of NASA Wallops, said "Wallops is at a very exciting point in its history. We want our neighbors on Delmarva to have this opportunity to share in this excitement."

"In addition, this is an opportunity to introduce students in the area to many science, technology, engineering and math careers. We hope that one day our local students will be carrying on the research at Wallops."

For the event, Wallops will have many of its facilities on its Main Base open including the sounding rocket payload facility, engineering labs, its scientific balloon labs and the range control center. Visitors will get to see full-scale sounding rockets, a scientific balloon, and the Cygnus spacecraft from Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus is scheduled to start carrying supplies to the International Space Station from Wallops in 2011. Also, three local high school teams will demonstrate their robots that competed in the First Robotics Competition.

For young explorers, there will be a kids' activities tent, a giant space shuttle slide and the Atlantic Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company's Fire Prevention Trailer.

In addition, the military aircraft, including the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, performing at the Ocean City Air Show, will be based at Wallops. They will take to the skies in the afternoon. Departure and arrival times will be announced the day of the open house.

Parking will be available on the base and buses will run throughout the day. Food will be available in the facility's cafeteria and on the grill outside out side the café.

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