NASA opened the first of six new buildings planned at Langley Research Center on Friday, part of a $330 million effort to modernize the space agency's oldest campus.
"It is a like a new child," Langley Director Lesa Roe said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 72,000-square-foot administration building.With its sleek angles, large windows, green roof and solar panels, the building contrasts with Langley's aging wind tunnels and brick office buildings, many of which date back to the space race of the 1960s.
Woodrow Whitlow, NASA's associate administrator for mission support, said Langley grew haphazardly during those years. Wind tunnels used to test spacecraft that put Neil Armstrong and other astronauts on the moon are no longer needed, he said.
For example, he offered the 16-foot Transonic Tunnel, which Langley researchers used to evaluate everything from the F-14 fighter jet to the Space Shuttle.
"I don't think it has in run 10 years," Whitlow said. Parts of the recently dismantled tunnel hang in the new administration building.
Three congressman — Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake; Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach; Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland — attended the ceremony. While each said the United States must invest in science and technology, they are part of the Republican-controlled House that slashed funding to NASA and other federal agencies this spring.
While taking a tour of the building, Wittman acknowledged the dichotomy.
"The resources we have are going to be limited," he said, noting that the building and planned laboratories will be make Langley more energy efficient. In the long run, Wittman said, a reconfigured campus will help Langley expand its areas of expertise, such as aeronautics, earth science and space exploration.
Rigell, who sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, said current NASA funding is "substantive."
A groundbreaking for the next phase of Langley's modernization plan, dubbed New Town, is set for later this year. Funding for the project, an engineering building, is included in budget plans that must be approved by Congress.
The last three phases, laboratories and another office building, are expected to be completed during the next dozen years, said George Finelli, Langley's head of Center Operations.
But with the nation embroiled in debt and uncertainty over the future of human spaceflight — the Space Shuttle program will end this year and NASA will rely on Russia to reach space — funding for New Town isn't a given.
Douglas Dwoyer, a retired Langley administrator who helped plan New Town, previously expressed doubt that it would be funded in its entirety.
Even if New Town moves forward, Langley still has unresolved issues, including deteriorating infrastructure, an aging workforce and its reliance on contractors, according to a 2010 National Academy of Sciences report.