SAN FRANCISCO — NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is experiencing a spike in activity as personnel prepare to conduct a series of research missions on sounding rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles and Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Minotaur 1 and Taurus 2 rockets. That ambitious schedule is keeping all Wallops workers busy but offers a particular challenge for LJT & Associates Inc., the firm that won a five-year contract in June and took over the management in August of the Wallops Research Range, the only launch range owned and operated by NASA.

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Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is a recipient...