Open house to gather input for Spaceport America’s master plan

Spaceport America hosted an open house at Sierra County commissioners’ chambers on March 6.

There were two presentations given before a question and answer period was held.

The first presentation was given by Spaceport America’s economic-development staff person, Francisco Pallares, who is also an economics professor at New Mexico State University.

The second presentation was given by Andrew Nelson of RS&H (Reynolds, Smith & Hills Architecture Company), which is based in Jacksonville, Fla. Nelson is vice president of the company’s aerospace group, according to its website.

Spaceport America hired RS&H to author its master plan. Nelson said they have been working on it for about eight months and will present the final results probably in May.

Both of their presentations are attached at the end of this article.

Pallares and Nelson and Spaceport America Executive Director Scott McLaughlin said that the economic prospects at spaceport are heating up because the private space industry has taken off domestically and internationally in recent years.

Spaceport America, said Pallares, Nelson and McLaughlin, is something of a model that is admired. Other struggling spaceports ask, “How did you do it,” McLaughlin said.

Unfortunately, McLaughlin said, within the state the spaceport’s reputation is not good among state legislators, making the state’s contribution to capital projects and operations precarious from year to year. “When that negativity gets out,” McLaughlin said, “It makes it harder to convince prospective companies to come here. And New Mexico does not have a great business reputation to begin with.”

Spaceport America’s strong points emphasized by Pallares and Nelson:

• It’s the only spaceport among the 14 domestic spaceports (besides the federal spaceport, Cape Canaveral) that has both horizontal and vertical launch capabilities.
• It has the largest area of “closed airspace” in the country—6,000 square miles.
• It can use White Sands’ air space.
• Its location is good for symbiotic growth among educators, space companies and manufacturers, hence the formation of the “Space Valley” coalition that runs through the middle of the state and into Mexico.
• New Mexico Tech, New Mexico State University and the Spaceport America’s Cup intercollegiate rocket competition are attracting some of the best students around the world, which in turn is attracting space companies who want to hire them, many of which are climbing on board as sponsors of the event. “It’s become a hiring event,” McLaughlin said.
• Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, with its huge manufacturing capabilities, just signed a memorandum of understanding with Spaceport America to work together to court and service space companies and their off-shoots.
• The spaceport’s isolation attracts companies and government agencies that want privacy during their testing or practice phase.
• Federal spaceports have a long wait list and are too public, making Spaceport America’s quick service and confidentiality attractive.
• Texas is right next door, with “two of the major players” [SpaceX and Blue Origin] in the space industry, which brings collegial, mutual-interest, partnering and servicing opportunities.

The brass ring that would ensure Spaceport America’s expansion, utility and economic success is being chased by all spaceports, Pallares and Nelson said. That brass ring is “reentry” licensing. Being the first to bring it to market is a big priority for Spaceport America, which has the added challenge of being an inland spaceport. The FAA currently grants reentry licenses to spaceports that land in the ocean to avoid harm to humans on land.

Currently the technology that would allow precision reentry of a rocket or spaceship (with the economic boon of reusability) in an inland spaceport “is about 10 to 20 years out,” Nelson said.

Such precision landing would open up spaceship travel from point-to-point around the globe, from Spaceport America to Abu Dhabi, for example. It would also make the horizontal runways at inland airports possible competitors to Spaceport America’s 200-foot-wide and 12,000-foot-long runway.

When the reentry technology problem is solved, Spaceport America could launch big two-stage rockets that take people to the space station, for example, or set satellites in space.

Nelson told attendees he wanted to hear “the good, the bad and the ugly,” allowing more than an hour of question and answer and comment time.

Truth or Consequences Mayor Rolf Hechler and previous-state-representative Rebecca Dow said Spaceport America’s communication needs improvement.

“I want to support the Spaceport, but I can’t do that unless I know what is going on,” Hechler said. He also said the state legislature will not support the spaceport to a greater capacity until Spaceport America “gets all of the local communities on the same page and then we all go together to the legislature.”

Dow said it is important to win over the legislature, because the spaceport, “is at the whim of the legislature,” and its 18,000 acres are owned by the State Land Office.

McLaughlin said that many times nothing can be communicated because companies doing testing or test flights do not want it known. In addition, elected officials and governor-appointees on spaceport governing boards are not sufficient megaphones, McLaughlin suggested. “We thought the two boards [Spaceport Authority Executive Directors and Regional Tax District Board] would be enough, but clearly it isn’t.”

Dow also said the “disconnect of what was pitched and what was delivered” has undermined the locals’ belief in the spaceport. “We were supposed to have 100,000 visitors and tourists every time there was a spaceflight,” she said.

Hechler agreed that the “added value is not much seen here in T or C.”

Dan Warren, a Cuchillo resident, said he read the 2022 economic impact statement (available on Spaceport America’s website). It made no effort to determine where employees working for the Spaceport in Sierra County lived, making the claimed economic benefits to this area dubious.

Warren also pointed out that Virgin Galactic, the prime mover and impetus for building the spaceport, is a vast economic disappointment. “It’s losing money hand over fist,” and its stock is selling at an all-time low of about $1.40 a share, he said.

Nelson said Virgin still commands a demand market. There is a big backlog of customers willing to pay up to $450,000 for a ticket, for instance. And there is a “big market” for those wishing to pay Virgin to carry “microgravity experiments” on board. Virgin also attracts customers interested in “optical observations they can’t make from orbit,” but only from Virgin’s lower flight that reveals the earth’s curvature.

Warren asked if SpinLaunch is still at the spaceport, given that it held a big auction several months ago. McLaughlin said they allowed its company employees to live onsite during the covid shut-down. Otherwise they would have “had to go to Las Cruces” and/or suspended operations. When the covid restrictions were lifted and employees could leave, their attendant equipment was auctioned off.

“Their goal is to reach the Kármán line, which they haven’t done,” McLaughlin said. The company will therefore be back, he said. “Money is more expensive now,” McLaughlin said, making the company’s fund-raising and borrowing power decline temporarily.

Hechler and Warren asked about the fulfillment of the promise to build a visitors’ center that would get people spending time and money in Truth or Consequences.

McLaughlin said he has been “speaking to the legislature” about a “$40-million visitors’ center,” that would be a combination “Camino Real museum” and spaceport visitors’ center, without mentioning a location or the state’s reception to the idea.