Wallops Spaceport Agreement Update
Governor McAuliffe Announces Agreement to Continue Operation of the Virginia Commercial Space Authority
“The cost of repairs to Pad 0A are expected to be approximately $15 million at completion, split equally between Virginia Space, Orbital ATK and NASA, and rebuild efforts are on schedule as we continue to work with our partners to return the Spaceport to operational status,” said Virginia Space Authority Executive Director Dale Nash.”
*scratches head*
I realize that the construction costs to rebuild the space port are subject to whatever contractual agreements were in place at the time, but I wonder why NASA and Virginia would contractually indemnify any portion of the costs of an explosion in advance.
Agreed. OSC broke it and OSC is the only user, so seems like they should pay for it out of the payments they get for the service they provide by using it.
But why bother fixing it at all? OSC has shown that they could fly out their Cygnus commitment just fine using Atlas. With all the current focus on wanting to return NASA spending on paying for US launch capability and worries about dependencies on Russian imports, it seems like continued use of Athena contradicts NASA goals and returning it to flight an unnecessary expense.
They only bought one Atlas rocket, to make up for the lost cargo. They will not use any more Atlas after that, as it’s too costly. They also have round 2 coming up, which they hope to win and continue flying from Wallops.
Could someone remind me of the usual practice at airports? In the event of an aircraft accident which damages the facilities, who pays for the repairs? Does the carrier pay? Is the carrier required to have insurance? Or does the airport pay and pass on the costs in the form of use fees?