Mid-Atlantic commercial spaceport launches rocket carrying 2 satellites, its first liftoff - Americas - International Herald Tribune

The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, a state agency, built the commercial launch pad in 1998 on land leased from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility to try to help bring jobs to the economically depressed Eastern Shore region. Maryland later joined the venture.

"It's been a lot of work, it's been a long road, but today we showed we can do it," Billie Reed, director of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, said after the launch. "We're in business for real."