HAMPTON, Va. - A new laboratory at NASA Langley Research Center opened Thursday. The world-class facility in Hampton will help NASA accelerate its research efforts.
This is the first new lab they’ve opened in 30 years, and Thursday they took News 3 on a tour.
At 175,000 sq. ft., the brand-new lab is the largest of all of Langley’s planned new facilities.
It houses 48 research labs that will accelerate a host of projects in aeronautics, space exploration, laser testing technologies and even refining lidar sensing techniques that will benefit entry, descent and landing concepts for the exploration of the moon and Mars.
But it’s not just about what’s among the stars - it focuses here on a global scale as well.
The facilities will also help develop sensors and instruments that will monitor Earth’s environment and monitor pollution from space.
The best advantage of the building is that it will allow them to bring a bunch of different research areas together in the same facility.
“So, you get cross-pollination of ideas and concepts, and it advances our ability to go deeper into space to understand our planet better and to understand how aircraft can be improved,” Joseph Atkinson, public affairs specialist for NASA Langley explained. “And those are all important areas of research for us here at NASA Langley.
It’s very exciting news, and it will streamline their costs as well, eliminating $105 million in maintenance costs while reducing Langley’s footprint by 1.21 million sq. ft.
