WASHINGTON - NASA will unveil its new rocket integration facility at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 21.

The Horizontal Integration Facility will support medium class mission capabilities. The first customer to use the facility will be Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., with its Taurus II launch vehicle.

Orbital will be conducting missions for NASA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project and Commercial Resupply Services program. Integration of the Taurus II at the facility will begin in February with launch expected later this year.

Participants in the ceremony:
- Sen. Barbara Mikulski
- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
- NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations William Gerstenmaier
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Director Rob Strain
- NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director William Wrobel
- Orbital Sciences Corp. Chairman and CEO David Thompson

Media representatives interested in attending this event must contact Keith Koehler at keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov or 757-824-1579 by noon on Wednesday, Jan. 19.

For more information about Wallops, visit:
 

http://www.nasa.gov/wallops

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