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Commercialization

Spaceport America: Just Send Us More Money (Update)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
June 25, 2017
Filed under
Spaceport America: Just Send Us More Money (Update)

Waiting for liftoff at the Spaceport, Santa Fe New Mexican
“The concept of space tourism was all the rage when Spaceport America was pitched to New Mexico taxpayers a decade ago as a gateway for rich adventurers willing to pay $250,000 for a ride to the heavens. But as the state has waited year after year for the first of what were supposed to be regular flights into space from the nearly $220 million facility, people behind the program are reimagining it more as a hub for the commercial spaceflight industry rather than space tourism. That change in approach could require pouring millions more in public money into a place that plenty of critics have called one of state government’s biggest boondoggles. Dan Hicks, new executive director of the spaceport, says the spaceport must construct additional facilities and offer more services to draw more business.”
Finance authority grants spaceport limited use of tax revenue for operations, Santa Fe New Mexican
“Spaceport America, the government-subsidized operation that promised new business for New Mexico by luring wealthy space travelers but in six years hasn’t had any such flights, won a partial victory Thursday in its pitch to use more tax money to increase its operating budget. The New Mexico Finance Authority agreed to let the spaceport for one year use extra money from the taxes that shoppers pay in two Southern New Mexico counties. But the spaceport wanted the excess tax money in perpetuity, a proposal that the finance authority declined to grant as its chairman raised questions about the facility’s financial strength.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

13 responses to “Spaceport America: Just Send Us More Money (Update)”

  1. TheBrett says:
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    They really shouldn’t have funded it without an express commitment and contract for launches from it by a certain date (with a penalty if that didn’t happen). New space enterprises can be big on dreams and short on funding, so it would have been a way to see if any interested parties were serious about using it.

  2. Dewey Vanderhoff says:
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    The irony of Spaceport America being located near Truth or Consequences NM is not lost…

  3. Donald Barker says:
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    It is amazing how folks don’t understand the big picture and how most things really progress. And in the end you reap what you sow. All you can do is laugh.

  4. savuporo says:
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    I hear its gonna be a center of stratospheric drones, hoverboards, aerospikes and other surefire ways of boosting jobs and economy real soon now.

  5. ThomasLMatula says:
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    The problem is they put nearly all their eggs in the VG basket. The business plans we developed for the original spaceport in the 1990’s focused it heavily on rocket R&D, engine development and related aerospace opportunities, including a heavy STEM element with a New Mexico Space Academy located on the NMSU campus with field stations at the site.

    Sadly they ignored all of that and just bought into the VG hype – hook, line and sinker… But this could still salvage it by returning to its basic strengths and getting over their fixation on VG.

    • savuporo says:
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      It’s not like there are many viable space baskets around anyway.

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        That is why it is important to create an environment for making them instead of fighting over the existing ones.

    • Daniel Woodard says:
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      With the mount of money that was invested ($220M) it does seem that they could have funded quite a bit of university-level R&D and maybe a few small launcher companies that have commercial portential. NASA is trying to kickstart this field with the Flight Opportunities Program. VG is trying to move into the smallsat arena but whether it’s design will be competitive is unclear.

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        Yes, especially given the links the research universities in the state have with NASA and WSMR. They was a lot of potential in that area for building SER (Science, Education, Research) markets with the spaceport as the flagship facility. None of those activities needed the expensive runway or terminal. Indeed, most could have been developed around equipment surplus or borrowed from the WSMR and NASA WSTF. But then the state bought into hype rather than substance.

  6. Bill Housley says:
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    Well, ten years ago suborbital space tourism may have been seen by many as the first big growth industry for Commercial Space. Commercial Space didn’t need it. Robotic orbital launches are where the money is and after Elon kicked in the doors of that industry folks started setting their sights on that as step one.

    They probably hyped space tourism to sell SA because it was easier to sell.

    Someday it’ll be great…maybe. Too bad it hurt so many folks along the way.

    Maybe they shoud just mothball some of it for now to hold maintenance cost down until it has a mission.

  7. Andrew Goetsch says:
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    People always underestimated Rutan’s ability. Just because he got people to space in a year for $25 million, they figure they could do it. Virgin spends millions and takes years to correct problems Burt would have solved in two weeks.

  8. SteveW says:
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    Now, SA’s latest tenant announcement appears to be a one-man show called Pipeline2Space where you can buy your launch from a vending machine: https://www.youtube.com/wat…. Even if this is a good whose time will come, Spaceport America managers certainly will have a hard time justifying their salaries. Perhaps Spaceport Camden can win Pipeline2Space away from SA for their first customer!

  9. Natalie Clark says:
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    Here’s an interesting article and link below. Why all the secrecy with the public money?
    New Mexico: Senate panel backs bill to keep some spaceport business dealings secret

    http://www.santafenewmexica