NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island along the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Sounded in 1945, the center is NASA's home for sounding rockets and balloon science missions. But the facility also shares space with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a private launch site for rocket missions. Take a tour of some of Wallops' facilities and see some of the site's most dazzling launches in this SPACE.com slideshow.
The sun rises over NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island along Virgina's Eastern Shore. The site is the launching ground for NASA's sounding rocket program.
A NASA Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket roars toward space on a mission to create glowing red clouds above Earth on Jan. 29, 2013. The rocket launched from NASA's seaside Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. [More Sounding Rocket Launch Photos]
Four of five sounding rockets liftoff from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (Virginia) in this time-lapse photograph of the ATREX mission. The experiment took place on March 27, 2012, producing white clouds to study fast-moving winds high in the thermosphere. The first rocket was launched at 4:58 am EDT, with following launches occurring at 80-second intervals. [See more amazing launch photos]
A rocket hangar at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, a rocket launching site on Wallops Island, Va., on the U.S. East Coast.
A view inside the launch control room at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., on the U.S. East Coast.
A water tower stands in silhouette in this view of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in twilight.
A small NASA rocket launches into suborbital space from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., in this video still from the Jan. 29, 2013 liftoff. The rocket released red lithium vapor in space to light up the night sky in a technology test. [More Sounding Rocket Launch Photos]
An Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket stands poised to launch the TacSat-2 satellite in the first ever orbital space shot from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, on Dec. 12, 2006.
An aerial view of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, on the U.S. East Coast.
Antennas at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., on the U.S. East Coast.
An aerial view of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, on the U.S. East Coast.
This image shows a look inside the Wallops Flight Facility Launch Control for a sounding rocket launch on Jan. 29, 2013, from Wallops Island, Va. [More Sounding Rocket Launch Photos]
Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden cut the ribbon at the new Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Is., Va., in March 2011. [Full Story]
The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) was launched by sounding rocket at 7:01 a.m. Monday, July 23, 2012, from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. [More photos of inflatable heat sheild concepts]
The Max Launch Abort System, an astronaut escape ship alternative to NASA's tower-based choice on the Orion vehicles, launched at 6:26 a.m. EDT on July 8, 2009 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. [See more photos of the awesome test]
A NASA Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket streaks toward space on a mission to create glowing red clouds above Earth on Jan. 29, 2013. The rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. [More Sounding Rocket Launch Photos]
An aerial view of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, on the U.S. East Coast.
