WASHINGTON — Orbital Sciences Corp., one of two companies under contract to fly cargo to the international space station for NASA, has been cleared by the U.S. space agency to begin launch pad operations at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va.

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Dan Leone is the NASA reporter for SpaceNews, where he also covers other civilian-run U.S. government space programs and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. He joined SpaceNews in 2011.Dan earned a bachelor's degree in public communications...