Poquoson, Virginia

Poquoson High School is a public secondary school, located in Poquoson, Virginia and serves as the sole public secondary school for students in the City. The school was opened in 1910 and currently has approximately 700 students. The school competes in athletics and activities in the Virginia High School League's AA Bay Rivers District. Poquoson High has historically been known for its wrestling program, which has won numerous state championships and has occasionally been ranked nationally.

The Lunar Landing Research Facility was an area at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia that was used to simulate Apollo Moon landings with a mock Lunar Module powered by a small rocket motor suspended from a crane over a simulated lunar landscape. Completed in 1965 at a cost of $3.5 million, the facility was used by 24 astronauts, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to practice solving piloting problems they would encounter in the last 150 feet (46 m) of descent to the surface of the Moon.The structure was used to facilitate "flying" a full-scale Lunar Excursion Module Simulator (LEMS). The LEMS was suspended from a 200-foot (61 m)-tall, 400-foot (120 m)-long A-frame gantry by an overhead bridge crane. The LEMS is now on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center.

The Poquoson River is an 11.7-mile-long (18.8 km), mostly tidal river in the state of Virginia. The river is an estuarine inlet of the Chesapeake Bay, entering just south of the mouth of the York River. The river flows primarily through York County, rising south of Yorktown to the west of U.S. Route 17 and flowing south to Harwoods Mill Reservoir, a 265-acre impoundment that is the terminal reservoir for the City of Newport News water supply system that was created by damming its upper reaches, where it turns east, flows under Route 17, and becomes tidal. The river flows northeast and becomes the boundary between York County and the city of Poquoson, reaching Chesapeake Bay just north of the Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge. It has several tributaries including Bennett Creek, Roberts Creek, Chisman Creek, Lamb's Creek, Patrick's Creek, Hunter's Creek, and Moore's Creek. The creeks are named for families who settled along their banks during the colonial period. The river's name is probably related to pocosin. The first reference to Poquoson is believed to be in Colonial records of a land grant of 500 acres (200 ha) in New Poquoson to Christopher Calthorpe in 1631 by a court in what became the former Elizabeth City County. This area still known in the 21st century as Calthrop Neck is bounded by the Poquoson River, Lambs Creek, Moore's Creek and Yorktown Road.

The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module. In addition, many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to the eventual selection of Houston, Texas.Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the research center devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study and improve aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958 and 1963, when NASA (the successor agency to NACA) started Project Mercury, LaRC served as the main office of the Space Task Group. In September 2019, after previously serving as associate director and deputy director, Clayton P. Turner was appointed director of NASA Langley.

Bridgeport Academy is an alternative school in Hampton, Virginia. Established in 2007, the school serves middle and high school students as an alternative education from regular Hampton City Public Schools.

The Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in Poquoson, Virginia, located on the southwestern corner of the Chesapeake Bay. The 3,501-acre (14.17 km2) refuge is located at about the midpoint of the Atlantic Flyway, and is one of four refuges that comprise the Eastern Virginia Rivers National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Prior to being transferred to the jurisdiction of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1972, the preserve's lands were owned by the United States Department of Defense and used as a bombing range. Due to the amount of unexploded ordnance that remains, only the 200-acre (0.81 km2) Cow Island portion of the refuge is open to the public.

The Rendezvous Docking Simulator, also known as the Real-Time Dynamic Simulator, is a simulator at the Langley Research Center. It was constructed for the Gemini program in Building 1244 and it became operational in June 1963 at a cost of $320,000 and later reconfigured for the Apollo program. The simulator consists of a gantry frame, with an overhead carriage from which test craft were suspended by cables. A gimbal was powered hydraulically and was capable of changing pitch and yaw at a rate of 1 radian per second or roll at 2 radians per second. The gantry also moved like an overhead crane using electric motors and was capable of travelling 210 feet (64 m) longitudinally at up to 20 feet per second (6.1 m/s), 16 feet (4.9 m) laterally at up to 4 feet per second (1.2 m/s) and vertically 45 feet (14 m) at up to 10 feet per second (3.0 m/s).It is the only surviving simulator from the NASA Gemini and Apollo space programs that was used by astronauts to practice docking of space capsules with other vessels. Ability to dock reliably with the Apollo Lunar Module was a crucial skill essential for the mission to return from the Moon. The docking simulator was used alongside the Projection Planetarium in training exercises. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985.Currently it is stored, hanging from the rafters in Building 1244, a vast hangar at Langley, and there are no plans for it otherwise.

Langley Speedway is a race track located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. Langley Speedway is a paved short track measuring 4/10 mile in length. It is one of the flattest tracks in the region with only six degrees of banking in the corners and two degrees of banking on the straights. In November 1970, it became the site of the last NASCAR Grand National Series race before the series was renamed the Winston Cup. The track is located in front of NASA's Langley Research Center on Commander Sheppherd Boulevard. The track is NASCAR sanctioned and participates in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, which determines a national champion for the NASCAR sanctioned local tracks. The track hosts 12 divisions that alternate running during their Saturday night program: Late models, Modifieds, Virginia Racers, legends cars, Super Streets, Enduros, Grand Stocks, Super Trucks, UCARS, Pro Six, Bandoleros, and HRKC Pro Winged Champ Karts. Pre race ceremonies for the regular Saturday night events begin at approximately 7:00 PM with the first race of the night beginning about 15 minutes later. Langley also hosts Hampton Roads Kart Club races on most Sundays and some Fridays during the season, Wacky Wednesday which allows anyone with a helmet and a street legal car to participate in the time attack, burnout competition, and one on one drag races on most Wednesday nights during the season, the Langley Drift Club which helped bring drifting to the Hampton Roads’ area, and starting in 2023 Old-Dominion Region-SCCA Autocross events.

Langley Air Force Base (IATA: LFI, ICAO: KLFI, FAA LID: LFI) is a United States Air Force base located in Hampton, Virginia, adjacent to Newport News. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917.On 1 October 2010, Langley Air Force Base was joined with Fort Eustis to become Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The base was established in accordance with congressional legislation implementing the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The legislation ordered the consolidation of the two facilities which were nearby, but separate military installations, into a single joint base, one of 12 formed in the United States as a result of the law. On February 4, 2023, an F-22 Raptor took off from the base and shot down a Chinese balloon, marking the jet's first-ever combat air kill.

Joint Base Langley–Eustis (IATA: LFI/FAF, ICAO: KLFI/KFAF, FAA LID: LFI/FAF) is a United States military facility located adjacent to Hampton and Newport News, Virginia. The base is an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Langley Air Force Base and the United States Army's Fort Eustis which were merged on 1 October 2010. The base was established in accordance with congressional legislation implementing the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The legislation ordered the consolidation of the two facilities which were nearby, but separate military installations, into a single Joint Base, one of 12 formed in the United States as a result of the law. Unlike other joint bases that share common perimeters, the two components are geographically separated by 17 miles. In January 2010, the Air Force reactivated the 633rd Air Base Wing to assume host unit and installation support functions at each location. The installation assumed its full operational capability (FOC) in October 2010. The 633rd ABW commander is Col Gregory Beaulieu, and Chief Master Sgt. Kennon D. Arnold is its command chief master sergeant. The 633rd ABW is responsible to Air Combat Command.

The National Transonic Facility (NTF), also known internally as facility 1236, is a high-pressure, cryogenic, closed-circuit wind tunnel at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. It uses nitrogen gas, at high pressure, to cool the air which allows flight aerodynamics to be duplicated in small scale. The cross section of the tunnel is 8.2 feet (2.5 m) high and 8.2 feet (2.5 m) wide. Unlike full-scale wind tunnels, the NTF can adjust airflow to match any model size down to 1/50 scale. The facility can operate at temperatures ranging from -250°F to + 150°F. To achieve lower than ambient temperature, liquid nitrogen is sprayed into the tunnel through nozzles upwind of the fan used to accelerate the air. The facility has tested aircraft such as the Boeing 777, Boeing 767, Space Shuttle as well as blended wing designs such as the B-2 bomber, A-6 Intruder, F-18 Hornet.

Tabb High School is a public high school located in Tabb, an unincorporated community in southern York County, Virginia, United States. It is part of the York County School Division. The school opened in 1972 and is located near the site of one of the first land battles of the Civil war, the Battle of Big Bethel. Athletic teams compete in the Virginia High School League's AA Bay Rivers District in Region I. Historically, Tabb High School has been known for its football program, which was dominant in the early 1990s and produced two players for the NFL, Chris Slade and Terry Kirby. The Tiger football team won VHSL Group AA state championships in 1981, '87, and '90.