Accomack County Archives - Virginia Business

Firefly Aerospace to launch at Wallops Island

Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace has picked Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located on Accomack County’s Wallops Island as a new launch site for its two-stage orbital Alpha rocket, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday.

A small launch vehicle, the Alpha serves commercial, civil and national security clients and can carry 2,200 pounds to low earth orbit.

Founded in 2017, Firefly has launched the Alpha four times from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. A fifth launch, scheduled for Wednesday, is also set for the former air force base. Firefly plans to begin launching Alpha from Virginia in 2025.

Additionally, Firefly expects to later launch from Wallops the medium launch vehicle (MLV) it’s designing with Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman. The MLV can carry more than 35,000 pounds to low Earth orbit.

“Firefly is committed to establishing a regular on-demand launch service and serving our customers’ growing responsive space needs, and that requires operating a diverse set of launch sites,” Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said in a company press release distributed Monday. “Virginia Spaceport Authority further sets us up for success by enabling a streamlined approach to launching both Alpha and MLV from one location at [the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport] with minimal congestion from the broader launch market.”

Firefly also plans to operate a launch control center, horizontal integration facility and administrative office space on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, according to the company’s press release.

Firefly plans to launch the Alpha four times in 2024 and six times in 2025. By 2026, the company plans to have monthly Alpha launches.

Firefly’s first launch of Alpha in September 2021 exploded in mid-air. The October 2022 launch, however, successfully reached orbit. In September 2023, Firefly launched Alpha and deployed a satellite 27 hours after launch orders were issued, according to the U.S. Space Force, setting a new record for responsive space launch.

The fourth Alpha launch in December 2023 carried a payload for Lockheed Martin. A software problem caused the rocket to deploy a satellite to the wrong orbit.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is located on NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Virginia Spaceport Authority leases from NASA the land for the launch pads and other facilities.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport offers three launch pads, with a fourth under construction, as well as a payload processing facility. California-based Rocket Lab announced in February 2022 that it had selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new, reusable Neutron rocket.

Eastern Shore poultry plants under child labor probe

The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating allegations of child labor violations at the Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms poultry plants in Accomack County, after The New York Times recounted the story of a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy who was gravely injured while cleaning a Perdue slaughterhouse.

Marcos Cux, whose arm was permanently crippled in a February 2022 conveyor belt incident at an Accomack plant, worked for a contractor hired by Perdue that employed migrant children as young as 13 to clean “blood, grease and feathers from industrial machines,” often using acid and pressure hoses, according to the newspaper’s report. It appears to be the first time the agency has attempted to hold companies liable for child labor violations by a subcontractor. Two cleaning contractors also are under investigation, according to the Times.

After the story was published Sept. 22, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division opened inquiries into Tyson and Perdue, a DOL spokesperson confirmed: “No additional details can be provided as the investigations are ongoing.”

The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry said it is unable to discuss ongoing child labor investigations, but added the department “is concerned about the safety of all workers, including youth workers, throughout the commonwealth and [is]troubled by the alleged behavior.”

Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation, a nonprofit trade association representing the industry, says that the state’s poultry plants in the Eastern Shore and the Shenandoah Valley are “early adopters” of the federal E-Verify system, which allows employers to confirm their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States.

The Times story, however, reports that underage workers often use faked documents to appear older. That’s “a challenge,” Bauhan says, and the poultry industry “is not immune from the possibility of someone using false documentation to try and get through. We as an industry do not condone false eligibility.”

Further, Bauhan says that “it’s incumbent upon the federal government” to address problems with the U.S. immigration system, particularly when children come to the country unaccompanied by parents and are under pressure to send money home.

Perdue issued a statement, saying that it was conducting a “third-party audit of child labor prevention and protection procedures, including a compliance audit of contractors and identity fraud review,” and would cooperate fully with the government. A Tyson spokesperson said in October the company had no comment.

Rocket Lab, Leidos sign contract for 4 rocket launches

California-based Rocket Lab USA has signed a contract with Reston-based Fortune 500 contractor Leidos to launch four Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) missions, the launch company announced Tuesday.

The suborbital testbed launch vehicle missions will lift off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County. They are scheduled during 2024 and 2025.

Leidos selected Rocket Lab for hypersonic test launches under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) contract, which the Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded to a Leidos subsidiary in October 2022. Rocket Lab launched its first HASTE rocket, derived from its Electron rocket, on June 17 for Leidos.

“Our first HASTE mission … successfully demonstrated HASTE’s ability to accelerate the cadence of hypersonic flight testing for the nation,” Brian Rogers, Rocket Lab’s senior director of global launch services, said in a statement. “We’re proud to now follow it up with a series of four additional missions for Leidos to support hypersonic technology innovation and technology maturation.”

Rocket Lab National Security, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary focused on the defense and intelligence communities, operates the HASTE program.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite platform and is developing the Neutron 13-ton payload class launch vehicle. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, the company has delivered 171 satellites to orbit for private and public organizations. Rocket Lab has two launch pads in New Zealand in addition to its pad in Virginia.

Rocket Lab to launch new hypersonic rocket from Va.

California-based Rocket Lab USA Inc. will launch its new Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket in Accomack County in the first half of 2023.

The company introduced the suborbital testbed launch vehicle, derived from its Electron rocket, on Monday. Rocket Lab is preparing the HASTE vehicle for launch for a confidential customer at its integration and control facility on Wallops Island, according to a news release. The rocket will launch from the company’s Launch Complex 2 within Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, where the aerospace company launched its 60-foot-tall Electron rocket in January, its first launch from U.S. soil.

“Hypersonic and suborbital test capabilities are key priorities for the nation, yet the [Department of Defense’s] ability to test these systems has been limited,” Brian Rogers, Rocket Lab’s senior director of global launch services, said in a statement. “With HASTE, we’ve taken a proven vehicle in Electron and tailored it specifically to deliver highly capable, frequent and cost-effective hypersonic and suborbital test opportunities from our existing launch site in Virginia.”

Rocket Lab announced in February 2022 that it had selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new, reusable Neutron rocket, a move that is expected to bring 250 jobs.

Rocket Lab National Security, a wholly owned subsidiary, will primarily operate HASTE. HASTE will have a payload capacity of up to 1,540 pounds and options to accommodate larger payloads.

Since 2018, the Electron vehicle has deployed satellites for NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Space Force.

Dynetics, an Alabama-based wholly owned subsidiary of Reston-based Leidos Holdings Inc., has selected Rocket Lab to provide hypersonic test launch capability under a Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane division contract announced in October 2022. The Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit has also selected Rocket Lab to prototype hypersonic launch capability on HASTE in its hypersonic and high-cadence testing capabilities (HyCAT) program. In addition, the company completed a study for the Missile Defense Agency’s Targets and Countermeasures Program to evaluate a variety of payloads on HASTE, which could set the stage for future test flights, the company said in a news release.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite platform and is developing the Neutron 13-ton payload class launch vehicle. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, the company has delivered 159 satellites to orbit for private and public organizations. Rocket Lab has two launch pads in New Zealand in addition to its pad in Virginia.

Rocket Lab launches first mission from U.S. soil

After more than a month’s delay, Rocket Lab USA’s first launch from U.S. soil at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County blasted off Tuesday evening.

The mission, “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” lifted off around 6 p.m. EST from the company’s Launch Complex 2 at Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within the NASA facility, sending its 60-foot-tall Electron rocket into space, where it successfully deployed three satellites into low Earth orbit for Herndon-based satellite analytics company HawkEye 360.

About 90 seconds after lift off, Electron’s nine Rutherford engines were propelling the rocket at speeds of about 3,000 kilometers per hour, or more than 1,800 miles per hour, according to video of the launch.

The Electron rocket launch from Virginia supplements Rocket Lab’s New Zealand-based Launch Complex 1 from which 31 Electron missions have previously taken off. Combined, the two pads can support more than 130 launch opportunities every year, Rocket Lab said in a news release. Launch Complex 2, which was built for Electron, is expected to support up to 12 missions annually.

“We’re immensely proud to have delivered mission success for HawkEye 360,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. “With Launch Complex 2, we set out to create a new path to orbit from U.S. soil after more than 30 Electron launches from New Zealand, and what could be more fitting for the first Virginia mission than launching a Virginia-built satellite? We couldn’t ask for better mission partners in HawkEye 360 and Virginia Space, and we look forward to many more missions together.”

The mission is the first of three planned with HawkEye 360 through 2024 as the company seeks to boost its ability to collect radio frequency data across the globe and expands its constellation to 18 satellites. HawkEye opened a new, 19,000-square-foot facility in Herndon in July to boost production of its satellites.

“We are happy to report that our Cluster 6 next-generation satellites have reached orbit and we look forward to ramping up operations in the weeks ahead and fully integrating them into our constellation,” HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini said in a statement. “We are grateful for our valued mission partners, Rocket Lab and the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, who worked alongside our fantastic HawkEye 360 team to make this inaugural Virginia launch a success.”

Rocket Lab initially announced in November 2022 that it had established a 13-day launch window in December 2022. That was set following progress by NASA in certifying its Autonomous Flight Termination Unit software, which is required to enable Electron launches from Virginia. The NASA Wallops Flight Facility blamed unfavorable weather conditions and range/airspace availability for delays on its social media.

Electron’s first U.S. launch brings even more visibility to Virginia’s Eastern Shore as well as to the state’s space industry. Rocket Lab announced in February 2022 that it had selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new, reusable Neutron rocket, a move that is expected to bring 250 jobs.

“We are honored to support the launch of this historic mission,” Ted Mercer, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, known as Virginia Space, said in a statement. Virginia Space owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops. “In addition to being Rocket Lab’s first and only U.S. launch location, we will also be building rockets and processing their payload right here in Accomack County — something that has never been done in Virginia. Our partnership with Rocket Lab is a unique opportunity for the commonwealth of Virginia to create long-term economic development opportunities in the form of high-paying jobs, launch viewing tourism, and construction of new facilities on the Eastern Shore.”

Rocket Lab announces December Va. launch window

Rocket Lab USA Inc. will launch the first U.S. mission for its Electron rocket from a launch pad on NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County during a 13-day window that opens Dec. 7.

The company announced the Wallops launch Thursday. The mission, called “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” will deploy satellites for Herndon-based HawkEye 360 and will be Rocket Lab’s first liftoff from the company’s Launch Complex 2 at Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within the NASA facility. The launch pad was built for the company’s Electron rocket and is the company’s first launch site in the United States.

California-based Rocket Lab announced in February that it selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new Neutron rocket. The Electron rocket launch from Virginia will supplement its Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, from which 31 Electron missions have previously taken off. Combined, the two pads can support more than 130 launch opportunities every year, Rocket Lab said in a news release.

The Electron is a small, two-stage, partially recoverable orbital launch rocket that stands about 60 feet high and measures about four feet in diameter. Rocket Lab has flown 32 Electron missions, including three failed missions, since the first Electron flight in 2017.

The December launch window has been set following progress by NASA in certifying its Autonomous Flight Termination Unit software, which is required to enable Electron launches from Virginia.

“We are honored and excited to bring a new launch capability to Virginia’s Eastern Shore,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. “Electron is well established as the leader in small launch, reliably serving the responsive space needs of the commercial, civil, DoD (Department of Defense), and national security markets alike. With our inaugural mission from Launch Complex 2, we are immensely proud to expand on this strong launch heritage by enabling a new capability for the nation from Virginian soil. We look forward to making history this December with our dedicated mission partners HawkEye 360, NASA and Virginia Space.”

The Electron launch in December is the first of three it will undertake for HawkEye 360 in a contact to deliver 15 satellites to low Earth orbit between 2022 and 2024. Rocket Lab will also provide HawkEye 360 with separation systems produced by Planetary Systems Corporation, a Maryland-based space hardware company acquired by Rocket Lab in December 2021.

“We’re proud to be a Virginia-based company, with Virginia-developed technology, launching out of the Virginia spaceport,” HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini said in a statement. “We selected Rocket Lab because of the flexibility it enables for us to place the satellites into an orbit tailored to benefit our customers. Deploying our satellites on Rocket Lab’s inaugural launch is a giant leap in Virginia’s flourishing space economy.”

HawkEye opened a new, 19,000-square-foot facility in Herndon in July to boost production of its satellites.

With the December launch of the satellites, its sixth cluster of three, HawkEye will have placed 15 next-generation satellites into orbit within two years. A seventh cluster is anticipated to launch in February, followed by clusters 8 and 9 mid-2023. Once its latest cluster is commissioned, HawkEye will be able to collect radio frequency data as frequently as every hour anywhere in the world, the company said in a news release.

NASA’s Wallops visitor center will be open for the launch. A live webcast will also be available at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream from around T-40 minutes.

Rocket Lab to boost Eastern Shore space biz

The Eastern Shore and Accomack County are well-acquainted with the rockets’ red glare.

One of the oldest launch sites in the world, the NASA Wallops Flight Facility launched its first rocket on July 4, 1945. Given its history, it seems fitting that Wallops’ rocket business got a big payload boost in late February when California-based Rocket Lab USA announced plans to build a 250,000-square-foot facility on Accomack’s Wallops Island for manufacturing Rocket Lab’s reusable Neutron rockets. The company also plans to construct a new launch pad.

“Neutron is huge for the Eastern Shore,” says Ted Mercer, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, known as Virginia Space, which owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops.

“They’re going to bring 250 jobs,” Mercer says of Rocket Lab, adding that while most if not all of the positions are expected to be in Accomack, exact details aren’t yet known.

The state’s aerospace and unmanned systems industry workforce is projected to grow by 8.5% during the next decade, according to state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick.

“The growth potential is huge in the future,” Mercer says, adding that as of 2018, the “Wallops Cluster” made up of NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Northrop Grumman Corp., the Navy and Virginia Space, among
others, had an annual economic impact of $1.37 billion on the Eastern Shore.

Accomack County Administrator Mike Mason estimates that the Neutron program at buildout will generate roughly $2 million in direct annual property tax revenue to the county, which would increase the county’s total property tax revenues by roughly 6%.

“We’re a rural county,” says Supervisor Ron Wolff, who represents the district where the project will unfold. For Accomack, 250 jobs is “staggering; we’re scrambling to find places to put them all,” he says, adding it would be about a year before new workers start arriving.

Accomack’s planning commission has already recommended building a 140-unit townhouse development roughly 20 minutes from Wallops, Wolff says.

Rocket Lab broke ground on Neutron’s production facility in April, but a spokesperson declined to provide details on the construction’s timeline or the rocket’s launch. Virginia committed to an incentive package valued at about $57 million,
and Rocket Lab expects to spend about $103 million supporting Neutron’s development in the state over the next eight years.

Accomack has a strong relationship with NASA and Virginia Space, Mason says: “When they succeed, we succeed.”

Calif. aerospace company proposes Accomack County facility

Accomack County is a finalist for a proposed Rocket Lab USA Inc. facility, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.

If the county is selected, Long Beach, California-based aerospace company Rocket Lab would develop a facility to support part production, assembly, integration and test operations to support the launch of its Neutron launch vehicle from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Rocket Lab would expand to two launch pads on Wallops Island — one to support the company’s Electron launch vehicle and one to support the Neutron.

Rocket Lab announced the Neutron rocket in March 2021 and expects it to be operational in late 2024. The rocket is designed to deliver an 8-ton payload to low Earth orbit and might ultimately support human spaceflight.

“Wallops Island is one of just four major launch sites in the United States — and the only one located in the country’s best state for business. I’m so proud of the work our Virginia team has done to get to this final step. I challenge everyone on the commonwealth’s team, and everyone at Rocket Lab, to get this project over the finish line — and propel Rocket Lab and Virginia’s Eastern Shore to new heights,” Northam said in a statement.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company that delivers launch services, spacecraft components, satellites and other spacecraft and on-orbit management. Rocket Lab manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, which has delivered 109 satellites to orbit since January 2018, and the Photon satellite platform, which NASA has selected to support missions to the moon and to Mars, and which will support the first private commercial mission to Venus.

Rocket Lab is currently working with NASA to secure the necessary agreements and certifications for launches from Wallops Island.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Accomack County, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission to secure funding for the proposed project. The new facility would be constructed on a 28-acre site near the Wallops Island Flight Facility purchased by Virginia Space in 2021.

The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a workforce initiative created by the VEDP and Virginia Community College System, would provide customizable recruitment and training services at no cost to the company.

Reopening will be delayed in Richmond, Accomack County

The city of Richmond and Accomack County, the Eastern Shore locality that has seen COVID-19 outbreaks in its poultry plants, will not enter Phase One of Gov. Ralph Northam’s “Forward Virginia” reopening plan Friday. Like Northern Virginia, the localities will wait two weeks until May 29.

The governor’s announcement comes after Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Accomack County’s Board of Supervisors made a formal request to delay. In a news release Thursday evening, Northam announced he had amended Executive Order 62, which provides details on the Northern Virginia postponement.

Essentially, the current shutdown that has been in effect statewide since March will remain in place in the “Phase Zero” localities for the next two weeks.

“As I have said previously, Virginia’s Phase One guidelines represent a floor, not a ceiling,” Northam said in a statement. “I have encouraged local leaders to request exemptions when appropriate, and I am pleased to grant the delays for both Accomack County and the city of Richmond.”

“I want to thank Gov. Northam for working with us,” Stoney said in a statement. “This step will make Richmond safer as we face this challenge together.”

Earlier Thursday, Stoney said he had written the governor to request more testing and data on the city’s COVID-19 cases. Dr. Danny Avula, the city’s health department director, had asked the Virginia Department of Health for a current number of tests performed in Richmond but had not received a response by the time Stoney wrote to Northam on Wednesday, the mayor said.

Meanwhile, Accomack County Administrator Michael Mason wrote a letter to Northam at the request of the county board, which voted Wednesday to request the two-week delay.

City of Richmond’s percent of positive COVID-19 cases. Click to expand.

“The number of cases in the county continues to grow at an alarming rate and, with recent testing in both community and congregate facility settings, local health officials have warned total positive cases could increase by over 50% in a matter of days,” Mason wrote. “Despite having a population that is only .39% of the state population, our number of positive cases represents 2.14% of the statewide totals.”

Both Stoney and Mason said that they would rather rely on regional testing data when making decisions to reopen, as opposed to statewide stats. Stoney notes in his letter that the city’s percentage of positive cases, compared against tests conducted, has “increased over the past two weeks, rather than decreased.”

Richmond and Accomack join the city of Alexandria and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William in delaying Phase One of the governor’s reopening plan. The Northern Virginia localities joined as a group to request a delay, which was granted earlier this week.

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus also issued calls for a delay this week in the reopening plan, citing the disproportionately high rates of infection among black and Latino people, who “will become guinea pigs for our economy,” they wrote in a letter to Northam. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax also called this week for a task force to study the coronavirus’ effect on people of color in Virginia and “aggressively address and remedy” the situation.

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

CDC dispatches team to Eastern Shore poultry plants

A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is arriving in Virginia today to assist with containing COVID-19 outbreaks among workers at two large poultry processing plants in Accomack County, Gov. Ralph Northam announced during a news briefing Monday.

The plants, operated by Arkansas-based Tysons Foods Inc. and Maryland-based Perdue Farms, employ more than 3,000 people, many of whom are from Haiti and English is not their first language, Northam said.

A Perdue worker reportedly died from the disease last week, according to the Eastern Shore Post.

Virginia has 10 such poultry processing plants of varying sizes, mostly located on the Eastern Shore and in the Shenandoah Valley, the governor added, and the commonwealth has more than 120 federally inspected meat processing plants statewide.

“These poultry plants are a vital part of our food supply chain, providing food to millions of people on the East Coast. But the health of the people who work in these plants is also critically important,” Northam said. “While the companies here in Virginia are taking additional safety measures inside their facilities to protect their workers and keep the plants operational, I am very concerned about the continued rise in cases.”

Poultry plants in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware on the Delmarva Peninsula have been experiencing similar COVID-19 outbreaks, Northam said, and he and the governors of Maryland and Delaware wrote a joint letter to President Donald Trump requesting a “fully coordinated approach” from the federal government to deal with the rapidly developing outbreaks. In particular, Northam expressed concerns that medical facilities on the Eastern Shore could quickly become overwhelmed if the situation isn’t contained.

The CDC team arriving Monday will include epidemiologists, contact tracers and language specialists who speak Haitian Creole, the governor said. The team will assist the Virginia Department of Health and local health departments, Northam said, “with conducting wider-scale testing to “determine the actual scope of the problem” at the poultry plants and take steps to contain the outbreaks.

On Sunday, U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the CDC issued joint guidelines to meat processing plants, aimed at protecting factory workers from contracting COVID-19.

Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, Tysons Foods and JBS USA have closed 15 meat processing plants across the nation due to coronavirus infections, leading to a roughly 25% cut in national pork production. An April 25 report by The Washington Post found that the three major meat companies had failed to provide protective equipment to all workers in the crowded factories. An employee at a Smithfield Foods plant in Missouri and members of a workers’ rights group sued the company, charging that Smithfield Foods is operating the plant “in a manner that contributes to the spread of disease.” As of Friday, there were no confirmed cases at the Missouri plant, however more than 800 COVID-19 cases were linked to an outbreak earlier this month at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Smithfield Foods factory where more than 600 employees tested positive for COVID-19.