MARS launch pad repaired following rocket explosion

In May, folks at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility will be launching an Antares rocket from its MARS launch pad which sustained damages after a rocket malfunctioned during a launch in October 2014.

The total cost of repair took about 15 million dollars; however, Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (“Virginia Space”) executive director Dale Nash says the complete repair was worth it.

“You can see a little charring on the handrails as you go across but for the most part, the pad looks better than it’s ever looked.” Explains Nash.

Virginia Space owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (“MARS”). According to Nash, the repair costs were split evenly between NASA, Virginia Space, and Orbital ATK which manufactures of the Antares rocket.    

“The lightening towers…rebuild some of the concrete, the piping in the area that saw heat, so you can take from the impact point sort of out in a radius on the repair.” Describes Nash.

Nash says among the heaviest hit was the crater, which has now been completely repaired.

During this roughly year-long process, he explains an opportunity was taken to spruce up other areas of the pad which includes areas that were not damaged as a direct result of the explosion, such as the flame trench. It allows flames to get out and away from the rocket during a launch.

“It has ablative which is like a blast furnace so we just took the opportunity to all of the ablative back up to the depth that it was all before which is about 12 inches. We had some areas that it had seen erosion down to about four inches.” He says.

While Nash says the launch pad looks better than it ever has, he also tells 47ABC one of the most important things his team can focus on now are simulations.

In November, they reportedly completed a performance test; however, he says they need to continue looking at procedures leading up to their next launch dates in 2016.