Launch Pad 0 (LP-0), also known as Launch Complex 0 (LC-0), or Launch Area 0 (LA-0), is a

launch complex A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform ( mobile launcher platform), or the entire ...

at the

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) is a commercial space launch facility located at the southern tip of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and south of Chincoteague, Vi ...

(MARS) on

Wallops Island Wallops Island is a island in Accomack County, Virginia, part of the Virginia Barrier Islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States. It is just south of Chincoteague Island, a popular tourist destination. Wallops Isla ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. MARS is located right next to the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Wallops Flight Facility Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk, VA, Norfolk. The facility is operated ...

(WFF), which had run the launch complex until 2003. WFF still provides support services to MARS launches under a contract with the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The launch complex consists of three individual

launch pad A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire c ...

s, LP-0A, LP-0B, and LP-0C, referred to by Rocket Lab as Launch Complex 2 (LC-2). Additionally, there is a fourth pad, LP-0D (referred to by Rocket Lab as Launch Complex 3 or LC-3), that is currently under construction.

Launch Pads

Pad 0A

LP-0A (located at ) was first built for the failed Conestoga rocket program. The original launch tower was subsequently demolished in September 2008. A new pad facility was built from 2009 to 2011 for

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

''Taurus II'', now renamed

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by ...

. Pad modifications for Antares included the construction of a Horizontal Integration Facility for launcher/payload mating and a wheeled transporter/erector that will roll out and erect the rocket on its launch pad about 24 hours prior to launch. The first launch of Antares occurred on April 21, 2013. The pad was reinforced with pilings and features a liquid fueling facility, flame trench, and deluge system for cooling and sound suppression. The pad is capable of supporting a gross liftoff weight of and can launch payloads of up to into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

. On October 28, 2014, an Orbital Systems Antares rocket, flying as mission

Cygnus CRS Orb-3 Orbital-3, also known as Orb-3, was an attempted flight of Cygnus, an automated cargo spacecraft developed by United States–based company Orbital Sciences, on 28 October 2014. The mission was intended to launch at 22:22:38 UTC that evening. ...

, crashed 6 seconds after takeoff and appeared to have done significant damage to the launch pad itself. On October 29, 2014, teams of investigators began examining debris at the crash site. By May 2015, estimates had been revised down to around US$13 million. At that time, NASA had committed US$5 million, Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority committed US$3 million and

Orbital ATK Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and de ...

US$3 million. Repairs were underway and planned to be completed by September 2015, but repairs were only funded up to August with Virginia CSFA requesting that Orbital provide the remaining US$2 million. On September 30, 2015, the spaceport announced repairs on pad 0A had been completed. The launch pad resumed flight operations with the

Cygnus CRS OA-5 OA-5, previously known as Orbital-5, was the seventh planned flight of the Orbital Sciences Corporation, Orbital Sciences' uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus (spacecraft), Cygnus and its sixth flight to the International Space Station under th ...

mission on October 17, 2016. In March 2021,

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab Corporation is a Public company, publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and List of launch service providers, launch service provider. Its Rocket Lab Electron, Electron orbital rocket launches Small satellite, small satellites, and ha ...

announced that they would launch their upcoming medium-lift launch vehicle

Neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...

from LP-0A, with the initial launch planned for as early as 2024. However, Rocket Lab later opted to construct their own Neutron launch site between Pad 0B and Pad 0C. In August 2022, Northrop Grumman announced that they plan to transition from the 200-series to the 300-series of Antares, as the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

in February ended the production of the Russian-designed and Ukrainian-built

RD-181 The RD-191 () is a high-performance single-combustion chamber rocket engine, developed in Russia and sold by Roscosmos. It is derived from the RD-180 dual-combustion chamber engine, which itself was derived in turn from the four-chamber RD-170 ( ...

used as the first stage engine. As a result, LP-0A and surrounding facilities would require moderate renovations in order to support the upgraded rocket's larger first stage to be produced by

Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. The current company was formed when the assets of the former co ...

. As part of the renovation, Firefly also announced that the facility will become an East Coast launch site of their own

Firefly Alpha Firefly Alpha (Firefly α) is a two-stage orbital expendable small lift launch vehicle developed by the American company Firefly Aerospace to compete in the commercial small satellite launch market. Alpha is intended to provide launch o ...

lifter upon the pad's completion, helping support existing operations from SLC-2W at

Vandenberg Space Force Base Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from the ...

and future operations at SLC-20 at

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

. In addition, Firefly and Northrop Grumman plans for LP-0A to support the launching and landing of their Antares successor currently in development,

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

Gallery

File:Conestoga-1620.jpg, Conestoga-1620 on pad, 1995 File:Wallops Launch Pad 0A and Antares A-One (8668005183).jpg, Antares 110 on pad (

Antares A-One Antares A-ONE mission was the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation' Antares launch vehicle including the ascent to space and accurate delivery of a simulated payload, the Cygnus Mass Simulator (CMS), which was launched 21 April 2013. ...

), 2013 File:20140106 Antares CRS Orb-1 rocket at MARS pad 0A (201401060002HQ).jpg, Antares 120 on pad ( CRS Orb-1), 2014 File:Antares CRS Orb-3 vertical at Pad-0A (201410250005HQ).jpg, Antares 130 on pad ( CRS Orb-3), 2014 File:Aftermath of Antares Orb-3 explosion at Pad 0A (20141029a).jpg, The Pad 0A facilities the day after the October 28, 2014 launch failure. File:Antares Orbital ATK-8 Mission (NHQ201711100004).jpg,

Antares 230 Antares (), known during early development as Taurus II, is an American expendable medium-lift launch vehicle developed and built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (later Orbital ATK and Northrop Grumman) with financial support from NASA ...

on pad ( CRS OA-8E), 2017 File:Launch preparation for Cygnus NG-12 mission (NHQ201910290029).jpg, Antares 230+ on pad (

Cygnus NG-12 NG-12, previously known as OA-12, was the thirteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus (spacecraft), Cygnus and its twelfth Commercial Resupply Services flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. T ...

), 2019 File:Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport - aerial photo.jpg, Pad 0A, used by Antares, is second from the near end, next to the tall water tower.

Pad-0B

LP-0B (located at ) became operational in 1999, and was subsequently upgraded in 2003 with the construction of a mobile service tower, which was completed in 2004. It is active, and is currently used by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (, ''Mīnṓtauros''), also known as Asterion, is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "par ...

rockets. The first launch from LP-0B was of a Minotaur I in December 2006, and was the first launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Pad 0B hosted the Minotaur V launch of the

LADEE The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE; ) was a NASA lunar exploration and technology demonstration mission. It was launched on a Minotaur V rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on September 7, 2013. During its s ...

lunar orbiter in 2013, becoming the first (and so far only) beyond-Earth mission to launch from Wallops. On October 19, 2017, Vector Launch announced plans to conduct three launches from near Pad 0B with its then-in-development Vector-R small satellite launch vehicle over the subsequent two years, with an option for five additional launches. However, following the company's bankruptcy and restructuring, plans for these launches are unlikely.

Gallery

File:Atk alv x-1 pathfinder.jpg,

ALV X-1 ALV X-1 was the first and only flight of the ATK Launch Vehicle (ALV) sounding rocket developed by Alliant Techsystems. The launch occurred from LP-0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. This mission ...

, 2008 File:TacSat3 launch 090518-F-9999B-001.jpg,

Minotaur I The Minotaur I, or just Minotaur is an American expendable launch system derived from the LGM-30 Minuteman, Minuteman II missile. It is used to launch Small satellite, small satellites for the Us government, US Government, and is a member of the M ...

launch ( TacSat-3), 2009 File:Minotaur I rocket.jpg, Minotaur I on pad ( ORS-1), 2011 File:View of LADEE's Gantry! (9688000131).jpg, Gantry at Pad 0B on Sept. 4, 2013. File:Ladee 9 4 13 nasa edge 0.jpg,

Minotaur V Minotaur V is an American expendable launch system derived from the Minotaur IV, itself a derivative of the retired LGM-118 Peacekeeper Intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM. Minotaur V was developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (now absorb ...

on pad (

), 2013 File:Minotaur-1 ors-3 wd13-156-067 0.jpg, Minotaur I launch ( STPSat 3), 2013

Launch Complex 2 (Pad 0C)

In October 2018,

announced that it had selected Mid-Atlantic as its second launch site (the launch site in Mahia had at the time 2 pads, so this was Rocket Lab's third launch pad) called Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) or Launch Pad 0C (located at ). The new launch pad is near Pad 0A (and shares some systems with Pad 0A). Rockets launched from LC-2 are integrated at Rocket Lab's integration facility, located just a few miles away from the pad. They are transported to the pad and integrated onto the strongback. In December 2019, construction was completed and Rocket Lab inaugurated Launch Complex 2 at Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. In April 2020, Rocket Lab performed a Wet Dress Rehearsal with an Electron rocket on the pad. The first launch from LC-2 successfully occurred on January 24, 2023. An

Electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

rocket carried three satellites to orbit in a mission named "Virginia is for Launch Lovers".

Launch Complex 3 (Pad 0D)

In October 2023, Rocket Lab began construction on a new pad at MARS located between LP-0B and LC-2. Christened as Rocket Lab Launch Complex 3 (LC-3) or Launch Pad 0D, the site is intended to support the launching and landing operations of Rocket Lab's upcoming

launch vehicle.

Launch statistics

LP-0A

Conestoga launch operated by Space Services. Antares launches operated by

Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

in 2013 and 2014,

from 2016 to May 2018, and

since November 2018.

LP-0B

ALV X-1 launch operated by

Alliant Techsystems Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) was an American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, arms manufacturer headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia. The company operated across 22 states, Puerto Rico, and internationally. ATK reven ...

. Minotaur launches operated by

from 2006 to 2013, and

since 2020.

LC-2 (LP-0C)

All launches operated by

References

{{Wallops Island Spaceports in the United States Buildings and structures in Accomack County, Virginia 1995 establishments in Virginia Rocket Lab Firefly Aerospace facilities