RICHMOND, Va. – Leaders from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., will join industry representatives Feb. 6 and 7 to meet with General Assembly members to promote aerospace in Virginia.
This is the eighth “Aerospace Days,” which include meetings with legislators, briefings to various committees such as science and education, and other events to provide updates on current aerospace-related operations, initiatives, facilities and technology development in the Commonwealth, including:
*ongoing efforts at NASA Langley and Wallops to continue NASA’s exploration of Earth and space, support commercial cargo and crew space transportation development, and enable access to deep-space destinations with the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle and the Space Launch System;
*construction of a new 135,000 square foot “integrated engineering services building” at NASA Langley and the recently opened, state-of-the-art Research and Innovation Laboratories at Hampton’s National Institute of Aerospace;
*the expanding and increasingly important efforts to increase and improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM education across the state by NASA and its partners, including the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and others.
Astronaut Anna Fisher – NASA’s first mother in space – will also be speaking with legislators and participating in NASA education outreach efforts. Fisher flew as a mission specialist on STS-51A in November 1984.
Media are invited to a news conference at 10:30 a.m., Feb. 7, in conference room 4 West of the General Assembly Building, where NASA will discuss what’s coming up in 2013 including the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) moon mission, scheduled to launch from Wallops in August. Legislators will also make comments. For more information contact Rob Wyman at 757-912-2973.
Additional facts about aerospace in Virginia:
*Virginia’s aerospace industry employs more than 28,000 people with a direct economic output of $7.6 billion and average salary of almost $100,000;
*NASA generates $1.2 billion and almost 11,000 jobs in Virginia;
*NASA provides STEM-related K-12 education programs, digital learning network, teacher enhancement, summer internships, pre-college and higher education programs in the Commonwealth.
For more information on NASA’s Langley Research Center, visit:
For more information on NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, visit:
For more information on the LADEE mission, visit:
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Photographs, videos and information from this year’s event will be shared using the Twitter hashtag #VAAerospaceDays2013
