RICHMOND -- The General Assembly is considering legislation it hopes will launch Virginia's fledgling space industry into orbit.

Both the Senate and House of Delegates unanimously passed bills last week to exempt companies involved in commercial space flight from paying corporate income tax. The idea, dubbed "Zero-G, Zero-Tax," is to make Virginia a player in the space industry.

Del. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, who is sponsoring the House version of the bill, said the federal government wants to give the private sector a larger role in jobs such as replacing satellites and resupplying the international space station.

"The government can't be doing all of this, especially just out of Florida, when there's so many other things that require national attention," Cosgrove said. "They're going more and more towards commercial opportunities. ... What we're trying to do is attract those companies into Virginia."

Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, is carrying the bill in the Senate.

"It's an investment in the future, and it may or may not pay dividends. But we ought to at least put ourselves in the position to be competitive, and we'll see where we go from there," Wampler said.

So what makes these legislators think Virginia can be a player in an industry long dominated by other states, particularly Florida?

The answer can be found on a peninsula extending from Virginia's Eastern Shore, tucked against the Maryland border. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, part of the Wallops Flight Facility, is one of seven U.S. spaceports officially recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The spaceport was built in 1998 and launched its first flight in late 2006. Wallops, operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was established as a rocket launch site in 1945.

According to the Wallops Web site, officials there expect "an increase in commercial launch activity in the very near future."

That notion excites Jack Kennedy, a former state legislator and now Wise County clerk of court. He's also on Gov. Tim Kaine's Aerospace Advisory Council and a big supporter of the "Zero-G, Zero-Tax" concept.

"It's the perfect site, the best in the world, to resupply the international space station," Kennedy said.

"There's roughly half a dozen [private companies] seeking to provide commercial services to NASA to re-supply water, food, equipment, as well as exchange crews," Kennedy said. "In the next few years there's wonderful potential to have commercial astronauts ferrying supplies and government astronauts. Wallops is the perfect place to do that."

The Wallops facility is in the House district of Del. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack County. He said Florida -- the acknowledged leader in the state-vs.-state space race -- is facing some challenges with its space industry, including recent layoffs.

"We want to offer ourselves up as an alternative," Lewis said. "The potential is just tremendous. It seems like every day there are inquiries and potential opportunities opening up to exploit [the spaceport] for economic development purposes."

Cosgrove agrees with that assessment. While Florida is being pressured by new development near its space facilities, Wallops Island remains largely rural, he said. Its location near the Atlantic Ocean provides a similar advantage.

"The launch path out of Wallops goes out over no populated areas whatsoever. It goes right over the Atlantic Ocean," Cosgrove said. "That can't be said for Vandenberg [Air Force Base, in California], and it can't be said for Florida. The shuttle and other space flight vehicles go right over some highly populated areas.

"So from a safety standpoint Wallops is far superior. From an insurance standpoint, Wallops is far superior, for the same reason," Cosgrove said.

But there are issues, too. Cosgrove, for example, has filed a $1 million budget amendment request to bury or relocate electric utility lines between the spaceport's assembly building and its launch pad. Kennedy said that's because companies currently "cannot move a launcher between the assembly building and the launch pad without taking out power lines. That seems simple but it hinders hundreds of millions of investment."

Wampler said he believes that scoring any big companies will probably require an assist from the executive branch.

"I would say it's going to take a governor to aggressively recruit something of that magnitude," Wampler said. The legislative branch, however, can help provide the governor with more recruitment tools, he said.

The Wallops Flight Facility currently employs nearly 1,500 federal workers and contractors. The spaceport employs four.

But Cosgrove sees the potential for much more. He said he's talked to representatives from companies who say they want to "invest literally hundreds of millions of dollars into Virginia's space infrastructure." He declined to name the companies.

"These jobs that we're talking about are extraordinarily high-paying, high-tech jobs," Cosgrove said. "We're talking engineers, literally rocket scientists."

No one really knows how soon any of this may happen. The Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. is already the "fastest-growing commercial space firm in America," Kennedy said. It was responsible for each of the two launches from the spaceport -- both done under contract for the military.

Even the enthusiastic Kennedy, however, acknowledges that Virginia's not a huge player in the space game.

"Virginia is truly behind the curve because we've not been tending to try to recruit these companies and really put forth some economic incentive," Kennedy said.

In addition to the legislation, Kennedy is working on a number of space-related projects. Foremost among them is the V-Prize Foundation. Modeled after the X Prize, which pushed teams to reach orbit in a private spacecraft, the V-Prize Foundation hopes to launch a technological push toward the end goal of making a point-to-point, suborbital flight from Virginia to Europe in one hour.

On the Net:

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport: www.marsspaceport.com

Jack Kennedy's blog: spaceports.blogspot.com

Wallops Flight Facility: www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops

V-Prize: v-prize.org