Government shutdown of Wallops hurts science — and potentially NASA facility itself

As the partial government shutdown began, federal departments and agencies began to close.

On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, non-essential employees at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility went home.

Halfway across the country, in Iowa, Phil Kaaret began to worry.

Kaaret is a professor at the University of Iowa and the principal investigator on an experiment known as HaloSat, a small satellite that orbits the planet and studies the halo of the Milky Way galaxy. He relies on people at Wallops to be able to communicate with his satellite.

Without them, it was possible the scientist was going to miss out on important information. 

The employees he worked with were declared essential, which means they were able to continue doing their jobs (albeit without pay), after just a few days. If it had been much longer, however, Kaaret would have been concerned.

"If I were to be going three weeks without it, I would start worrying not only about the science but also if the satellite itself is OK," Kaaret said.

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There is no way to know for sure how many employees are furloughed right now, but many Wallops employees work with people around the world on scientific expeditions. When the government shuts down and they're not able to do their work, it can hurt scientific experimentation.

It can also hurt Wallops itself. The facility may miss out on the potential for collaboration with other researchers or groups. Scientists may also opt to go elsewhere, including private companies, to meet their needs when it comes to getting to or studying space.

For the most part, many who work with NASA and Wallops are having to work around the shutdown. Not many problems have arisen yet, but a continued shutdown could be problematic.

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For instance, Rocket Lab, the private aerospace company that is building its first American launch complex at Wallops, said progress is continuing as normal. The complex, named Launch Complex 2 or LC-2, is expected to be completed at some point in the third quarter of 2019.

"Development of LC-2 is still tracking well through the shutdown currently," Morgan Bailey, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email.

At this point in the shutdown, it appears future launches, such as the Antares launch scheduled for April, are not affected by the shutdown. 

The launches bring crucial materials to those on the International Space Station. During a shutdown, those who actively work to support the astronauts on the space station are deemed essential employees and continue their jobs, although most of those employees are located in Houston at NASA's Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center.

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The last launch was Nov. 17, 2018. At the time, Wallops employees were already preparing for the next launch, known as NG-11. 

"All processing activities for both the Antares launch vehicle and Cygnus spacecraft remain underway," Northrop Grumman spokesperson Vicki Cox said in an email. "Northrop Grumman is committed to supporting NASA’s mission during the shutdown, and we are working closely with the ISS program office to ensure cargo deliveries continue uninterrupted."

Experiments around the world appear to continue as normal. Wallops spokesperson Jeremy Eggers said in an email on Dec. 21 (the day before the shutdown) that some field work, such as the Antarctica Balloon campaign, would continue as normal.

The same applies to the Grand Challenge Initiative, an international scientific collaboration to which NASA and Wallops contribute. Kjell Bøen, director of sounding rockets and balloons at Andøya Space Center in Norway, said the January missions are continuing as normal.

Back in the United States, however, a continued lack of funding means that scientists such as Kaaret might continue conducting science experiments with the help of private companies instead of NASA. The cost is typically higher, but as Kaaret points out, there are many private companies that can help with satellites.

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Now that he is able to communicate with his satellite again, Kaaret's concerns about the shutdown are more forward-looking. He received funding from NASA to conduct an experiment, and he was supposed to head to Wallops next week for a collaborative project with other universities as well as private companies.

His plane tickets need to be changed, but he said he's not sure what new dates to pick when he does that. He doesn't know what to tell the engineers involved. He doesn't know if he'll be able to conduct his research at all.

"NASA was very strict that the funding needed to be spent by the end of February," Kaaret said. "I don't know if the government will be open by then, and I can't communicate with HQ to ask questions about it. I'm at a standstill, and I don't know what to do."

Are you affected by the shutdown? Reach reporter Hayley Harding via email at hharding@delmarvanow.com, by phone at 410-845-4630 or on Twitter @Hayley__Harding.