XCOR Expanding to Texas
XCOR Aerospace and Midland Development Corporation announce establishment of XCOR’s new commercial spaceflight R&D center headquarters
“The Midland Development Corporation (MDC) and XCOR Aerospace jointly announced today the establishment of XCOR’s new Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters that will be created over the next eighteen (18) months. XCOR manufactures reusable rocket engines for major aerospace prime contractors and is the designer, manufacturer and operator of the Lynx, a winged fully reusable, high performance suborbital space vehicle that is designed to safely carry two persons or scientific experiments to the edge of space and back up to four times per day.”
Keith’s update: There will be a media telecon at 3:00 pm EDT today. Live tweeting at @NASAWatch
Interesting….
Another California company to Texas. Way to go governor Brown!
Other blogs are saying that this is an expansion…
Hopefully they keep their California roots and network. SpaceX is successful to a large degree because of the tech skill available in Cali, but even they realize it’s more feasible to do business in TX.
I think this is a mistake. They’ve got a great spaceport and flight test airspace at Mojave, and there’s a lot of other flight test/research groups in the area so you have access to a smart, experienced and local workforce. In an emergency they can land on the Edwards AFB runway or the lakebed.
I don’t think Midland airport really knows what they’re getting into here, flight test/flight research is a totally different ball game then supporting GA or even normal military flights, and is not well suited to share an airport with commercial passenger operations.
On the other hand, if operations like this are not undertaken, then the industry, in a competetive sense, never grows. The small number of existing players simply get bigger or smaller as the market changes, and prices will continue to rise. Industry growth that will lead to better pricing relies on diversification and expansion. We already suffer in aerospace because there are a very small number of very large companies, thus there is no incentive for lowering costs. We need, if not more companies (which would be best), at least more business locations. This, to me, is one of the real strengths of COTS. I hope XCOR expands into Texas; I think it will be better for all, particularly the customers.
Steve
If they just move the headquarters, wouldn’t that be for just a tax break? Leave everything in mojave except the offices?
Not just a tax break, direct payments. The city will give XCOR $10m, pay to have the airport reclassified by the FCC as a Spaceport, pay $6000/mth to lease facilities and re-lease them to XCOR for $1/yr for at least ten years.
If that’s “business friendly”, I sure wish I had friends like that.
[In return, the company has to spend $4m in the area over the next 5 years, and have a total payroll in the city of $200,000/yr by 18 months after the deal is signed, and a payroll of $12m/yr by 5 years after the airport reclassification. However, XCOR will be able to continue to play Midland off against other regions as they renegotiate (they were apparently also looking at Florida, and obviously Mojave will be itching to make a counter-bid.)]
Three words- Texas Congressional Delegation.
Tired of fighting arsenal/old space?- Locate where the Senators and Congresspeople won’t fight against ya, and if you promise enough jobs, economic development, internships etc- the congresspeople may actually fight for ya.
Space X is also possibly planning on movin’ to Texas and in the process (wisely) Elon Musk recently shook the hand of Governor Perry. Is their proposed Launch site at Boca Chica the southernmost (practical) US launch site? Sure is. More to the point, is Texas a damn powerful state for anyone that wants NASA or military launch money?
Sure is.
Well Texas may be a good state for business, but it is too hot and the water is terrible!