Spaceport America Seeking Additional $92.6 Million for Improvements
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor/Publisher
It’s budget season again in Sante Fe. As usual, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) is seeking money for additional upgrades to Spaceport America.
The Albuquerque Journal has a story outlining a series of requests totaling nearly $93 million. I have helpfully summarized the information in the table below.
| Agency | Project | Details | Amount (Millions $) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NMSA | Infrastructure improvements | Includes $25 million for welcome center and visitor access control installations | $57 |
| NMSA | Space vehicle and payload processing centers | On-site assembly of rockets and installation of microgravity experiments for horizontal and vertical launches | $20 |
| NMSA | New taxiway | First phase of new taxiway to run along side existing 12,000 ft runway | $10 |
| NMSA | Information technology | Modern IT control center for spaceport’s communications infrastructure | $2 |
| Governor’s Office | Spaceport operations | Increase from current $1 million largely to increase staffing | $3.6 |
| $92.6 |
New Mexico has already spent $220 million building the spaceport plus $25 million in capital expenditures for related infrastructure improvements.
New Mexico built the spaceport after reaching an agreement with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to become the anchor tenant for 20 years. When the deal was announced in December 2005, Virgin predicted it would begin to fly space tourists aboard its SpaceShipTwo vehicle by 2010 and that 50,000 passengers would reach suborbital space by 2019.
The total to date has been zero due to delays by Virgin Galactic. While awaiting the start of crewed flights, groups have launched suborbital sounding rockets carrying scientific experiments and technology demonstrations from the spaceport.
After a decade of delays, Branson’s company is finally planning to fly from the southern New Mexico spaceport this year. The company will begin with flight tests followed by the first commercial flight with Branson aboard. Virgin hopes to fly him in time for his 70th birthday on July 18.
State officials are ramping up for the start of commercial operations, hoping the spaceport will finally generate the thousands of jobs promised to taxpayers when it was announced 14 years ago.
Dale Dekker, co-founded of a booster group named Ambassadors for Spaceport America, predicted great things for Branson’s flight.
“We believe that investments in the spaceport will pay off this year with a global event that New Mexico has really never experienced before,” Dekker told the Journal. “When Richard Branson boards the first rocket, it will attract national and global attention, offering an opportunity for New Mexico to show off all its space-related assets. We believe it will be seen by billions, earning the state media attention equivalent to the Super Bowl or the Olympics.”
Spaceport America’s CEO told the Albuquerque Journal that the suborbital flights will attract large crowds.
Spaceport America must be prepared to host hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists, as well as new firms that may want to locate at the facility, both to provide goods and services to Virgin Galactic and other companies operating at the spaceport, and to conduct their own space-related activities there, said Spaceport America CEO Dan Hicks.
“After Branson flies, there will be Virgin Galactic flights every other week, or every third week, and people will come out to see it in big crowds,” Hicks said. “We need a visitor welcoming center to accommodate and control crowds of spectators – a place where they can look off in the distance to watch flights take off.”
We’ll see. After watching Virgin’s flight tests here in Mojave, I can attest that they not nearly on the scale of orbital launches that I have seen in person over the years.
A couple of minutes before it drops SpaceShipTwo, the WhiteKnightTwo mother ship releases twin vapor trails so observers on the ground can see it. After it is dropped, SpaceShipTwo ignites its engine for one minute as it streaks across the sky.
Following engine shutdown, the space plane disappears from sight as it flies up to suborbital space. Observers on the ground don’t see SpaceShipTwo again until after it descends to a lower altitude during its glide back to the spaceport.
The flights lack the power, grandeur and power of much larger orbital rockets that take off from the ground. Unless observers on the ground have a live video feed from SpaceShipTwo, it’s very hard to know what is actually happening during the flight.
5 responses to “Spaceport America Seeking Additional $92.6 Million for Improvements”
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This thing seems to be turning into The Spaceport That Ate New Mexico. As VG continues its agonizingly slow march toward commercial operations, one wonders if this whole site – and VG along with it – will be rendered redundant a very few years hence should SpaceX decide that orbital jaunts of an orbit or two are a good way to make some additional money with SHS once it’s been thoroughly shaken down by launching many unmanned missions for Starlink, etc. If so, it’ll make a good subject for a not-very-far-future episode of Mysteries of the Abandoned.
Since no project of this magnitude ever comes in on budget, let’s be optimistic and round the figure to $100 million. On top of what’s already been spent for as little revenue that’s been generated, this request may be the writing on the wall that screams “shut it down fast and cut loses”.
$57 million for a visitor center and access control? For what? A prefab steel building and some chain link fence? Is security going to drive around in military troop transit vehicles and top of the line black SUV’s (Range Rover most likely)? SA is way off of the main highway and one heck of a journey for anybody outside of locals who will get bored with going out to watch after the first few flights. The limited road access means that it’s easy enough to have some temp security people marshaling the people that do show up to some dirt viewing lots where there are some porta-potties and food trucks (toilets paid for by fees charged to the food trucks). I don’t see this adding up to anywhere near $57million.
Facility provided payload processing? WTH? Even if they build something, chances are poor that it will fit the requirements of any company. What is far more likely is some new anchor tenant comes in and takes it over after requiring modifications. $20million is a hefty price tag for a “build it and they will come” faith based project. If it isn’t maintained at a high continuing cost, it will get contaminated and of no use until millions more are spent to clean every square mm again.
The rest of the budget items are more swank for a facility that looks nice but doesn’t do much.
$4million in staffing? Wow. That’s 20 people at $100k/yr (2x salary for total). I’d like to see the breakdown on job posts and costs. Obviously, they’ll be paying security minimum wage and the General Manager closer to $250k/yr. We can’t forget that everybody is going to need workspace, etc that has to be air conditioned and supplied with computers, phones, high speed internet and toilet paper. Where’s the face palm icon?
I’ve seen this covered before !
https://www.theonion.com/in…
Many small airports with limited traffic don’t have a taxiway. Planes “back taxi” after they have landed and may need to taxi to the opposite end of the runway to orient into the wind for take off if the parking apron is on one end or in the middle. Is the traffic at SA so heavy that not having a $10 million taxiway is a huge problem?