Mark your calendar and cross your fingers an upgraded Antares rocket is expected to launch again from Virginia's spaceport this time next year.

If and when that happens, it will mark the final recovery of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) from the worst disaster in its short history. The state-owned spaceport is located at NASA Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore.

But many things must still go right in order for that to happen, said Barron "Barry" Beneski at Orbital ATK, formerly known as Orbital Sciences Corp. The Dulles-based company developed both the Antares and the Cygnus cargo craft to resupply the International Space Station under a $1.9 billion commercial contract with NASA.

The MARS launch pad has yet to be repaired after last October's catastrophic explosion of an Antares just after lift-off. The $20 million in federal tax dollars committed to pay for those repairs has yet to be released. And the Antares' new engines must still pass muster.

"So we have sort of parallel paths here of things that are underway that will lead us to be able to resume launches in March (2016)," Beneski said in a phone interview. The company has made two successful cargo runs already to the ISS.

And the timeline is firming up, Beneski said, starting in April, when Russian manufacturer Energomash tests a set of RD-181 rocket engines. Those engines are to replace the Aerojet AJ26 engines suspected in October's catastrophic failure. Beneski said the investigation into that accident should wrap up in a matter of weeks.

If the new engines pass, they'll be on their way to Wallops in June. A second set would follow this fall.

Around the same time, in October or November, Beneski said, the MARS pad should be fully repaired and ready for testing and recertification.

Then in January, Orbital ATK will bring a revamped Antares back to Wallops for an all-important test-fire of the new engines.

"And assuming that goes well, which it should," Beneski said, "we should be set to launch."

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Space station launches set to resume from Virginia next March