WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. - Some major launches are set to take flight in Accomack County in the next few months, including a first for the flight facility.
On September 5th, NASA Wallops will make a mission to the moon with the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE mission.
This will be a 160 day, unmanned flight that will study the atmosphere surrounding the moon.
"The payload itself is about the size of a refrigerator and it'll launch from Wallops, take about 30 days for it to reach the moon and then it will go into orbit around the moon to study the atmosphere as well as conditions of the surface of the moon," said Jeremy Eggers, NASA Wallops Chief of Public Affairs.
This will be the first mission to the moon since 2011 when NASA launched the GRAIL mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The LADEE mission is not the only launch in the next couple of months. The Antares rocket, which finished up a test launch in April is expected to start carrying supplies to the International Space Station by September. Around that time, the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel will be back to Wallops, which studies the formation of Atlantic based hurricanes.