Astronaut Rick Mastracchio paid a visit to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to view Orbital ATK’s Antares operations. Orbital ATK’s launches its Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops carrying supplies, experiments and other materials to the space station.
Mastracchio spent the afternoon meeting with Orbital ATK, MARS and NASA Wallops employees to recognize their support to the International Space Station program.
During the morning he met with 32 high school and college students during a poster session where the students showcased to the Wallops employees the work and research in which they have been involved this summer. He also met with students attending the Virginia Space Flight Academy.
Mastracchio joined NASA in 1990 and became an astronaut in 1996. He is a veteran of four spaceflights and was aboard the International Space Station when the Cygnus spacecraft arrived via the Antares rocket arrived during the Orbital ATK’s first cargo resupply mission in January 2014.
