NASA launched an astronaut escape system test from its Eastern Shore space center today.

When asked which states are “space states,“ many Americans would list Florida, California, and perhaps Texas as the most obvious candidates. However, Tuesday night’s launch of an Orbital Sci ences Corporation (OCS) Minotaur rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (co-located with the NASA flight facility on Wallops Island) moves Virginia closer to becoming a member of this rather exclusive club.

ATLANTIC—NASA has again scrubbed the launch of a rocket from Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Previous attempts to launch the rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility had been scrubbed every day since Monday because of bad weather. This time the launch was aborted with the countdown clock at just over two minutes because of a technical problem.

NASA has again scrubbed the launch of a rocket from Virginia’s Eastern Shore

A Northern Virginia aerospace company won a $1.9 billion contract from NASA yesterday to fly cargo missions to the space station from a launch site on Virginia’s Wallops Island.