The Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center is located in Building J-17,
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 ...
, United States along
Route 175. It contains exhibits highlighting past missions conducted at NASA's
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 ...
. The visitor center also provides information about current activities at Wallops Flight Facility, such as the
sounding rocket
A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...
, balloon and aircraft program. The outside grounds has a
rocket garden
A rocket garden or rocket park is a display of missiles, sounding rockets, or space launch vehicles, usually in an outdoor setting. The proper form of the term usually refers to the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Al ...
consisting of rockets and aircraft used for space and aeronautical research, including a full-scale four-stage reentry vehicle used to study the Earth's atmosphere. In addition, the visitor center has educational programs on Earth and space science. It is also a viewing area for rocket launches.
History
The visitor center was established in 1982. It is named ''Robert L. Krieger Education Complex'' after the long term head of Wallops Flight Facility.
Exhibits
Some exhibits include:
*Moon rock from
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...
*Scale models of rockets, satellites, research equipment and aircraft
*
Science On a Sphere
Science On a Sphere (SOS) is a spherical projection system created by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It displays high-resolution video on a suspended globe with the aim of better representing global ph ...
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
website
"Science On a Sphere"
Retrieved 25 January 2017.
*Hands-on interactive demonstrations and educational videos
*Observation deck for watching launches from Wallops Flight Facility
*Model rocket launches
*Earth As Art
Image gallery
File:NASA Visitor Center (WFF) Sign 1.jpg , "Welcome to the NASA Visitor Center"
File:NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center Four-Stage Reentry Vehicle DSCF1016.jpg , Four-Stage Reentry Vehicle
File:NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center Nike-Cajun sounding rocket DSCF1014.jpg , Nike-Cajun
The Nike-Cajun was a two-stage sounding rocket built by combining a Nike base stage with a Cajun upper stage. The Nike-Cajun was known as a CAN for Cajun And Nike. The Cajun was developed from the Deacon rocket. It retained the external size, ...
sounding rocket
File:NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center Scout rocket exhibit DSCF1022.jpg , Little Joe, to test Mercury spacecraft
File:Robert L. Krieger Education Complex Plaque 1.jpg, Plaque on Robert L. Kreiger Visitor Center Building
File:NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center Robert L. Kreiger Education Complex display DSCF1018.jpg , One of the Education Complex displays in Robert L. Kreiger Education Complex
File:NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center Practice Space Suit for Russell Schweickart DSCF1023.jpg , Training spacesuit for Apollo 9
Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program, which successfully tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. The three-man crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt, Command Modul ...
astronaut Rusty Schweickart
Russell Louis "Rusty" Schweickart (also Schweikart; born October 25, 1935) is an American aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut, research scientist, United States Air Force, U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft, fighter pilot, as well as ...
File:NASA Visitor Center (Wallops Flight Facility) 01.JPG, Main sign at the NASA Visitor Center (Wallops Flight Facility)
File:NASA Visitor Center (Wallops Flight Facility) 02.JPG, Historic sign at the NASA Visitor Center (Wallops Flight Facility)
See also
*
List of NASA Visitor Centers
Notes
External links
NASA Visitor Center(official website)
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Aerospace museums in Virginia
Museums in Accomack County, Virginia
NASA visitor centers
Science museums in Virginia
Museums established in 1982
1982 establishments in Virginia