1. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 1 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility Federal Laboratory Consortium January 29 2009

2. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 2 Location, Location, Location Restricted Airspace adjoining Atlantic Ocean Centrally Located among many NASA & DoD customers NASA/GSFC (Wallops) NASA/ Goddard NASA/ Langley Norfolk Area Atlantic Fleet Oceana Dahlgren Dam Neck Dover AFB D.C. Area Pentagon DARPA Missile Defense Agency Andrews AFB

3. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 3 Wallops 6000 Acre Campus Main Base Wallops Island

4. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 4 Wallops Research Carrier Suite Sounding Rockets Science Aircraft Scientific Balloons Autonomous Surface Vessels Unmanned Aerial Systems Multi-Payload Ejector Strategy: A carrier for any science & technology validation need

5. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 5 Wallops Mission & Activities Mission Wallops Facility will be a national resource for enabling low-cost aeronautic and aerospace-based science and technology Technical Activities Research Carriers –Sounding Rockets –Balloons –Aircraft & UAVs –Small Orbital Carriers Engineering Development & Technology Validation –Supporting Sensors, Instruments and Subsystems Earth Science Research Mission Operations –Launch Range –Research Airport –Orbital Tracking

6. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 6 Wallops Research Carriers New SRs Science Duration 0 10 -3 10 -2 1 10 10 -1 Hours Days Weeks Months 100 1000 Surface Measurements Piloted Aircraft UAVs Sounding Rockets Science Altitude (nm) Airships & Aerostats New SRs ULDB Balloons Small Orbital Payloads -10 -2 -10 -3 Sub-Surface Measurements & AUVs Potential or Planned Carriers Surface Measurements

7. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 7 Sounding Rocket Program Typical mission types: –Space Science research –Technology demonstrations –DoD targets (reimbursable) 20-30 missions/year Features: –Apogee altitudes >1500 km –Flight times >20 minutes –Spacecraft weights >1300 lbs. –Allows quick response missions (<1 yr.) –14 launch vehicle configurations –Uses low-cost surplus military rockets –Recovery/re-use of flight hardware End-to-end in-house capabilities (design, fabrication. integration, testing, & launch) World-wide fixed and mobile launch sites Black Brant XII Typical Spacecraft

8. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 8 Balloon Program Primary mission: –Space Science research 15-20 missions/year Features –Balloon volumes up to 60M cubic ft. –Suspended loads up to 8000 lbs. –Float altitudes of 100K-160K feet –Mission durations of >1 month Worldwide mission sites Development efforts: –Ultra-Long Duration Balloon –Trajectory control –Planetary balloons Balloon Inflation Balloon Payload Balloon at Float

9. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 9 Balloon Characteristics

10. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 10 Airborne Science Program Piloted aircraft & UAV “flying laboratories” supporting Earth Science research –Heavy Lift: Wallops: P-3B U of ND: DC-8 Pass-throughs: WB57 (JSC), ER-2 (DFRC) –Contract Aircraft: Twin Otter (others pending) –UAVs: AAI/Aerosonde, Aurora Research examples: –Atmospheric Chemistry –Climate Change Ice cap & beach mapping Ocean current & biology studies Coastal Zone Research –Natural Disasters Hurricane studies & volcano eruptions Aircraft activities –Mission planning –Aircraft operations & maintenance –Aircraft modifications & certification NASA P-3 (based at WFF) NASA DC-8 (based at U of ND) Twin Otter (contracted)

11. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 11 Unmanned Aerial Systems WFF UAV Activities –Science missions –Operations –Science-enabling technology development NASA investigating UAV contribution to science. UAVs offer: –More hazardous flight regimes –Longer duration missions –Potentially lower costs AAI/Aerosonde partnership –Demonstrate utility of small UAVs for science –Establish procedures for science projects –Execute science missions Aurora Flight Sciences partnership –UAV infrastructure upgrades –Development & demo. of UAV-independent & science-independent data systems Wallops UAS Runway Aerosonde Aurora GE-80

12. GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility 12 NASA/WFF Opportunities Carriers (new flight platforms) –Rockets (Taurus II, High-Performance Sounding Rockets, Other) –UAV/UAS’s (huge bilateral interest) –Micro-satellites (CubeSats, etc.) Technology Development and Test –Advanced Flight Hardware (communications/telemetry, flight termination/safety, etc.) –Sensors (Surveillance, Science, etc.) –Radar/LIDAR, spectrometers, magnetometers, etc.) Services and Infrastructure –Buildings, runways, range instrumentation –GIS/mapping –Mission Planning