WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (Delmarva Now) — Jay Pittman stood up at the conclusion of the quarterly luncheon meeting of the Wallops Island Regional Alliance on Wednesday and quietly spoke these three words to a packed room: "There's no threat."
The assistant director for strategy and integration at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt repeated those words several times during the next few minutes.
Rumors spreading the previous Friday had sparked news media inquiries that led NASA to release an official statement about a study designed to explore ways to improve the relationship and increase efficiencies between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's sister facilities in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Island, Virginia.
Wallops Flight Facility spokesman Keith Koehler said Friday the 90-day study will wrap up by late October and is not expected to have any impact on the Wallops facility before then.
Still, the official statement only served to increase concerns across Delmarva that "efficiencies" was code for "closing Wallops Island Flight Facility."
Peter Bale, chairman of the alliance, led Wednesday's meeting. Just before Pittman was invited to stand up and speak, Bale told the Chincoteague Island gathering he would like to see the Wallops Flight Facility separated from Greenbelt and Goddard to become an independent facility.
He also said he believes Wallops could and should serve as a template for use by other NASA operations, citing Wallops' efficient operation and relatively low overhead.
What's at stake
The possibility of NASA pulling out of Wallops is a hot topic on Delmarva, raising the spectre of massive job losses and economic catastrophe across the region.
Around 1,200 people currently work at Wallops, including 280 civil service workers and more than 900 independent contractors, Koehler said, adding that the NASA Wallops annual budget is around $250 million.
An economic study prepared by BEACON at Salisbury University in 2011 lists the total economic impact at that time as more than $395 million -- the most recent figures available.
Wallops serves as a hub for unmanned spaceflight, satellite launches and is one of just two NOAA facilities in the United States that provide a downlink for vital weather data. The other is located in Fairbanks, Alaska.
A backup facility exists in West Virginia, according to Victor Grycenkov, station manager at Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station.
"The loss of any one of these sites would be a catastrophe," said Grycenkov. "If Wallops Flight Facility goes away, it will impact us."
The NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center is a rich educational resource offering exhibits about NASA's history at Wallops as well as aeronautics, orbital and sub-orbital rockets, scientific balloons, missions and more.
The Wallops complex also encompasses the commercial launch facility known as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and a U.S. Navy presence.
Because the NASA presence is so central to all the components of the Wallops Island facility, a lot is at stake, especially for Maryland's Lower Shore and Virginia's Eastern Shore, which is where the majority of Wallops employees and contractors live.
The idea Wallops Flight Facility might be in jeopardy drew attention from a number of elected officials from across the region, including a representative from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, and a brief appearance by U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1st. at the meeting. Statements from Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, and Maryland State Sen. Jim Mathias were read aloud.
All pledged a firm commitment to maintaining NASA's presence at Wallops Island.
"Wallops' mission is critical to our Department of Defense and to our space program, serving as NASA's only owned and operated space launch range. I take the concerns of the Wallops community seriously," said Van Hollen in an email this week, "and my office has already been in touch with NASA. I will continue working to protect and support the Wallops mission and workforce."
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine's office has reached out to NASA to learn more about what may be happening.
"NASA Wallops is a critical asset to Virginia and an economic engine on the Eastern Shore," said Kaine in a statement released Wednesday, "and the work done there helps to advance our national interests. I have always been an advocate for funding Wallops, and I would be concerned by any attempts to force cuts that could cost the region jobs and resources.”
Van Hollen went so far as to write a letter dated Aug. 8 to Goddard Center Director Chris Scolese, seeking clarity about the status of Wallops within the NASA agency.
"As I understand it, (Office of Management and Budget) has directed NASA to reduce its footprint by 25 percent. Recent reports speculate that the 25 percent footprint reduction could disproportionally affect Wallops and result in a significant loss of jobs," wrote Van Hollen. "Additionally, economic activity in (Maryland) and across the region that is generated by the space industry that supports and collaborates with our agencies and research centers would be severely threatened. I would appreciate your providing information on this issue."
Steve Habeger, who worked at Wallops for the U.S. Navy from 1980-2003, founded the Wallops Island Regional Alliance. Originally called the Eastern Shore Defense Alliance, Habeger said its original intent was to address the issue of base closings.
"I started the alliance in 2005 to deal with BRAC 2005," said Haberger. "At the time, the alliance was solely to support the Navy at Wallops. I had offered Wallops Flight Facility a chance to join in, but the NASA management back then declined."
Haberger said since Sen. Barbara Mikulski, long considered a powerful advocate for Wallops, retired in 2017, neither of the three relevant states — Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia — has a member in either chamber of Congress in a power position on relevant committees.
"The loss of the Wallops 'guardian angel' has left Wallops and, to a lesser extent, Goddard Space Flight Center, vulnerable," Habeger said.
Beyond the economics
While the economic impact is critically important, there is also an element of inspiration related to the Wallops Flight Facility that shouldn't be overlooked.
Pittman recalled growing up in nearby Onancock. As a child, he could watch rocket launches from his backyard.
"You can probably catch a glimpse of Antares rocket launches from Salisbury," said Pittman. "People as far away as West Virginia can see it on the horizon."
Habeger remains skeptical but retains some hope that what Pittman believes will come to pass.
"This was a positive meeting, but it didn't address the expenses or the political aspects," he said. "Nevertheless, I would like to see Jay's estimate come to pass."
Pittman remained adamant, saying it's rational to look for ways to improve the Greenbelt-Wallops relationship.
"There are valid technical reasons that make the Wallops Flight Facility fundamental to Goddard and NASA," he said. "Wallops does important work for NASA overall, for example, there's parachute testing that's relevant to a future Mars mission."
But he also pointed out there's nothing wrong with questioning NASA's motives.
"It's rational for a smaller facility to have a healthy paranoia," he said, "but in this case, there's no 'there' there, based on anything I've seen."