New Mexico Spaceport Authority Appoints Interim Director

Steve Landeene

New Mexico’s Economic Development Secretary Fred Mondragon is now acting executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority following the unexpected resignation of his predecessor, Steve Landeene.

The spaceport authority’s board of Directors made the appointment. It will meet again in 10 days to discuss a successor to Landeene, who had served in the post since January 2008.

The Las Cruces Sun-News had a bit more to report about his April 16 resignation in a story published on Friday. It quoted Landeene and board members as saying that he was burned out by a job that required 70 to 80 hour weeks, a situation made worse by the fact that his family lives in Phoenix. Landeene said:

“My intentions were, obviously, to stay around much longer. But the reality was that I was so absorbed in the job, I lost sight a little bit of the ability to have a proper balance and be spending time with the kids,” he said. “The spaceport was me. I lived and breathed spaceport for two years. It’s something I believe in so much.”

Landeene said that the authority’s major project, Spaceport America, is on track for completion next year. He pointed to an informed consent liability bill signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Bill Richardson as being one of the last pieces of the puzzle.

The newspaper reports an emergency session was held prior to Landeene’s resignation:

A day earlier, the entire Spaceport Authority board convened a six-hour, emergency closed session in Truth or Consequences to discuss an unspecified personnel matter. It wrapped up at 10 p.m.

Landeene was called into the session intermittently. Spaceport officials, however, have been mum about what transpired, beyond saying that it was a personnel-related. [sic]

Two controversies had cropped up in April about Spaceport America, which has been largely free of controversy over the last two years. One issue involved the prime contractor for the spaceport’s terminal, Summit West. The company was given an in-state contractor credit for the $32.5 million job. However, a story in the Albuquerque Journal questioned whether Summit West had much of a business presence in the state.

Landeene told the newspaper that another government department determined Summit West’s qualifications, and that the company had the lowest bid regardless. A board member also backed up the former director on this issue.

Spaceport Authority board member Kent Evans said Landeene’s resignation had “nothing to do with” the Summit West matter, though he said the board is looking into that further. Plus, Evans said, the responsibility for awarding the bids rests ultimately on the board’s shoulders.

“So if anybody is responsible, it’s us, and I think we were responsible and made a good decision,” Evans said.

The other controversy involved Landeene’s public comments about an effort to apply to the television show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” to renovate an old firehouse in the city of Truth or Consequences to serve as the spaceport’s visitors center.

Read the full story.