page_title: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Launch Pad 0
section_title: Pad 0A
hierarchical_section_title: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Launch Pad 0 / History / Pad 0A
caption_attribution_description: English: An aerial view of damage to the Wallops Island launch facilities taken by the Wallops Incident Response Team Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014, following the failed launch attempt of Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket Oct. 28, Wallops Island, VA.
context_page_description: Launch Pad 0, Pad 0 or LP-0, also known as Launch Complex 0, Launch Area 0 or LA-0, is a launch complex at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia in the United States. MARS is located adjacent to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, which ran the launch complex until 2003. WFF continues to provide various support services to MARS launches under contract with the Commonwealth of Virginia.
  The launch complex consists of three individual launch pads, LP-0A, LP-0B, and Launch Complex-2.
context_section_description: LP-0A was first built for the failed Conestoga rocket program. The original launch tower was subsequently demolished in September 2008. A new pad facility was built from 2009-2011 for Orbital Sciences Taurus II, now renamed Antares. Pad modifications for Antares included the construction of a Horizontal Integration Facility for launcher/payload mating and a wheeled transporter/erector that will roll out and erect the rocket on its launch pad about 24 hours prior to launch.
  The first launch of Antares occurred on April 21, 2013.
  The pad was reinforced with pilings and features a liquid fueling facility, flame trench, and deluge system for cooling and sound suppression. The pad is capable of supporting a gross liftoff weight of 453.6 metric tons (1,000,000 lb) and can launch payloads of up to 5,035 kilograms (11,100 lb) into low Earth orbit
  On October 28, 2014, an Orbital Systems Antares rocket, flying as mission Cygnus CRS Orb-3, crashed 6 seconds after takeoff and appeared to have done significant damage to the launch pad itself. On October 29, 2014, teams of investigators began examining debris at the crash site. By May 2015, estimates had been revised down to around US$13 million. At that time, NASA had committed US$5 million, Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority committed US$3 million and Orbital ATK US$3 million. Repairs were underway and planned to be completed by September 2015, but repairs were only funded up to August with Virginia CSFA requesting that Orbital provide the remaining US$2 million. On September 30, 2015, the spaceport announced repairs on pad 0A had been completed. The launch pad resumed flight operations with the Cygnus CRS OA-5 mission on October 17, 2016.
caption: The Pad 0A facilities the day after the October 28, 2014 launch failure.
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