Wallops' Launch Record – Fact or Fable? (Revised)
Wallops History – Launching Excellence Through the Years (2010)
“Established in 1945 under NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) … Wallops launched its first rocket on July 4, 1945. Since then, we have fulfilled our mission with the launch of more than 14,000 rockets.”
Wallops Island – 60 Years of Exploration (2005)
“Since 1945, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility has launched more than 15,000 rockets from Wallops Island for science studies, technology development, and as targets for the U.S. military.”
Keith’s note: Lets see. 1945-2010 – that’s 65 years of rocket launches – 23,725 days. If Wallops did complete 14,000 rocket launches you’d need to launch a rocket every 1.7 days nonstop for 65 years. Or if you believe the 2005 number of 15,000 launches (60 years, 21,900 days) that would require a rocket launch every 1.5 days.
I wonder if Wallops actually has records to back up these conflicting claims. Or is this just something they keep repeating – because the old hands say its true and no one really cares to check. Indeed, Wallops PAO can’t even get their own grand history straight. In 2005 they claimed it was 15,000 launches. Five years later it was 14,000. How did the number go down – shouldn’t it be going up? It is interesting that both numbers are exact multiples of a thousand and that they differ by exactly 1,000.
Keith’s update: I asked Wallops PAO “Do you have actual statistics to support the 14,000 / 15,000 launches from Wallops claims that appear on NASA.gov webpages? Why are there different official numbers? Can you direct me to those statistics – and explain what a “rocket launch” actually means i.e. does it include model rocket launches, mortars, etc.?”
The reply I got from Keith Koehler at Wallops PAO was “A few years ago I asked the same question. So I went through all the launch log books to confirm the numbers that were being used. The numbers were correct. The launches that Wallops have conducted include both those at Wallops and when we have conducted remote campaigns. The number includes sounding rockets, test rockets, met rockets, projectiles, and target vehicles. It does not include model rockets. In some cases, during the 1960s we had around 400 launches in a year. Also, some missions, such as the 1970s solar eclipse, included launching 36 rockets in 24 hours.”
I replied: “Why does one official NASA web page say 15,000 launches as of 2005 and 14,000 launches as of 2010? How can the number decrease — by exactly 1,000? Why are the numbers exact multiples of a thousand? Are the records you used publicly available?”
Koehler replied: “The numbers are rounded off. The log books are at Wallops. They are not publicly available on the web. I don’t know the reason for the discrepancies in the numbers. Which two sites are you looking at?”
My response was to ask why Wallops launch records are not public (other launch sites’ records are). and told Koehler to look at the NASA Watch link I originally sent him (obviously he did not read the NASA Watch link I originally sent him).
Koehler’s hilarious response: “I can’t explain the differences.”
Why let facts get in the way of a good story!!!
The folks at Wallops want to be taken seriously as a real launch center – one with a long history of launches. But when they are this sloppy with facts – and unconcerned with being accurate – its hard to see how they are going to be able to handle the PR that goes with larger, more visible launches.
Sorry Keith, I was actually being rhetorical. I agree that the accuracy is important. Rather than say it’s 14 or 15 thousand, they should have said, if the numbers weren’t accurate, something like ‘We believe it’s in the order of 14 to 15 thousand launches however, given the length of time, accurate numbers are not available’ or something like that.
Cheers,
I wouldn’t think it that unlikely that during the 40’s and 50’s they may have had many launches, albeit very small solid rockets in a single day. possibly dozens in a weeks time. As rockets became more sophisticated, naturally this launch rate would drop off. Yes I for one wouldn’t be so quick to doubt a facility that has been firing rockets since the end of WW II.
About the only thing I can say in their “defense” would be that one must remember that Wallops is responsible for launches at White Sands, Poker Flats, etc… not just Wallops Island. Also, many times there are multiple rockets launched on the same day as part of a scientific study. 4 rockets in one day averages out to about 1.5 per day for the week if there are no other launches. That much said, I wonder about their figures too. They’ve certainly launched a lot of rockets, more than have launched from Cape Canaveral, but still… 14-15K? I’m not sure about that.
Maybe they are including each stage and motor in that figure, that or the ESTES company test facility is also located onsite.
Yes but you see we are thinking about big rockets, not model rockets, and test rockets. They don’t specify what type of rockets or even narrow categories, under such loose definitions I launched over 30 rockets from a government site in Oregon (high school and elementary school baseball & football field.) One launch was fully government funded, (space science class) I also studied Aerospace engineering (model aerodynamics in Saturday academy at local university.) I also spent time at JSC in Houston working on educational programs and project management (was an community college aerospace scholar)
Any group can do stuff, and it can be related to interesting things, but to be a chief contributor you must show a relevant impact in the industry, how many major exploratory missions were launched from Wallops? What role did they play in research for the Moon, are they involved Orion, constellation, or any other future public space flight, I know Wallops has played a central role for military hardware development, but from all the research I had to do while I was “studying to be a NASA – citizen” Wallops was not mentioned as a key contributor to over all space flight, however one must wonder if that is a result of the NASA campus bias by the educators.
I think it’s important to not exclude launches without seemingly major impact. The big stuff builds on the learnings of the little stuff, so it’s all contributing and important. For lack of a nail … a kingdom was lost.
yes and that would indicate a strategic plan of smaller launches, and research guided in a manner for a specific goal, that would be a very interesting and valuable history lesson about Wallops operations and history.
Is it possible that some portion of the total launches were unreported military launches that we wouldn’t know about?
I am not all that certain that Wallops staff spent a ot of time being ultra precise on this.
I get the same feeling. At the same time, whatever the real number is, it would appear to be a lot more than I thought it was. I still think of the Little Joes when I think of Wallops; sort of the small guy’s launch facility.
Trying to come up with some numbers based on NASA documents:
3128 launches from 1945 to 1956 – http://history.nasa.gov/SP-…
c. 1000 launches from 1959 to 1968 – http://history.nasa.gov/SP-…, http://history.nasa.gov/SP-…
“perhaps 2000 were fired a year” (Arcas sounding rockets, starting in 1965) – http://history.nasa.gov/SP-…
So 14,000 is sounding (no pun intended) somewhat more reasonable.
The number could easily be both “more than 14,000” and “more than 15,000”. By ignoring the “more than” on both pages, it’s you, Keith, who is “unconcerned with being accurate”.
But why let facts get in the way of a good rant?
Why be accurate? This is about rocket science after all.
Agree. More than 15,000 is more than 14,000.
Seriously, is this an issue? Wallops, broadly writ (includes other physical locations), has had a lot of launches over more than half a century. Beyond that, nobody really cares how many for obvious reasons. There is no evidence here, or for any other entity including NASA, that the veracity of an organization’s PR department is in any way correlated with their technical performance.
“No body really cares”? How do you know that?
I am sure that “no body” cares, perhaps somebody’s mind. I happily amend my comment to read “Beyond that, few people really care…” My use of the absolute was intended to show that the accuracy of the number is less important than that it is big. Even more importantly, that the ability of a bunch of PR people to come up with a number is not in any way a measure of whether the current technical staff know how to launch rockets successfully.
How do you know that only “a few people care”?
I would imagine that Scot007 is making an educated guess. The universe of people who care to know the exact number of rocket launches by Wallops is probably vanishingly small, even within the rocket launching community.
Probably around the same number who even know that Wallops exists in the first place.
Wow, time for the conspiracy theory folks to break out the tinfoil hats…
While I’m sure the 14,000 or 15,000 launch number does NOT include model rockets, it almost certainly DOES include small met rockets like the Loki and Super Loki. The Loki only weighs about 16 kg, so it’s not much more than an overgrown model rocket, but these are often launched prior to a sounding rocket launch to get weather data. If one can believe Wikipedia (a risk, I know), there have been over 30,000 Loki and Super Loki vehicles manufactured.