Spaceport America Board Approves Spending $20 Million for New Capital Projects
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Fresh off a stinging report saying that it failed to properly oversee a state-owned facility rife with fraud, waste and abuse, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) Board of Directors approved spending up to $20 million on capital improvements to Spaceport America.
The Las Cruces Sun News reports that at its Nov. 2 meeting, the board approved spending up to:
- $9 million for a technology and reception center near spaceport’s main entrance
- $8 million for improvements to the spaceport’s vertical launch area;
- $2.2 million for a sole source contract to UP Aerospace to construct a launch rail
- $750,000 for repairs to the spaceport’s operations center, which suffered damage due to poor drainage work when it was constructed in 2019.
The New Mexico Legislature approved spending on the four capital projects during its 2019 session.
Board members also postponed action on a proposal to save a projected $9 million by refinancing the authority’s debt service. Directors wanted further analysis of the plan from business development director Scott McLaughlin, who is serving as the spaceport’s interim director.
New Mexico taxpayers have spent about $250 million building and expanding the spaceport, which was purpose built to serve as the home of anchor tenant Virgin Galactic.
When Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson and then-Gov. Bill Richardson announced plans for the spaceport in December 2004, plans called for space tourism flights to begin in 2009. They predicted Virgin Galactic would fly 50,000 tourists within a decade.
Fifteen years later, the number of tourists flown stands at zero. Commercial service is now forecast to begin in 2021 if a series of upcoming suborbital flight test go well.
Virgin Galactic pays lease and rent fees at Spaceport America. It will also pay additional fees based on the number of suborbital flights and passengers that fly from the facility.
The delays in starting commercial service have forced the spaceport authority to look to taxpayers to fund operations and expansion that would have been paid for by flight revenues.
A recent outside investigation into spaceport operation recommended the state government consider criminal and/or administrative charges against former Executive Director Dan Hicks and ex-CFO Zach DeGregorio for their handling of the authority’s finances.
The two men were accused of violating statutes and rules when awarding and managing contracts, approving travel expenses, and hiring employees.
The report said Hicks wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuing projects that were neither practical nor in keeping with the spaceport’s purpose. Employees told investigators that Hicks was incompetent and bullied subordinates.
DeGregorio left the spaceport authority in June. Hicks was placed on administrative leave that same month, and he was fired in October after receipt of the outside investigation.
Investigators also concluded that former NMSA board Chairman Richard Holdridge failed to provide proper oversight of spaceport operations. New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes replaced Holdridge as had of the board earlier this year.
At its meeting on Wednesday, board members accepted a recommendation by Keyes that the state Attorney General’s office review draft bylaws being written to improve operation of the spaceport and correct shortcomings identified in the investigation.
4 responses to “Spaceport America Board Approves Spending $20 Million for New Capital Projects”
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$9 mil for a reception center? They have the main building whose sole job so far has been for a handful of photo ops. That’s a big chunk of change when I bet that VG will demand the road is closed at either end when they do ops to keep the press out. For $9mil, they can have an open bar for many years although I’m sure there will be a facility manager making a healthy six figures to oversee operations that could eat into the budget.
I’d like to see how they would spend $8mil on the vertical launch area AND also give $2.2mil to to UP at the same time for a facility that I’m guessing is for their sole use only. I commented previously that it might be worth looking into adding transient facilities and some industrial buildings, but $8 million worth is over the top.
Yes, all of these “improvements” are focused in the wrong direction. But it goes with the outdated mindset most have of spaceports from seeing them in science fiction. It causes them to miss the real opportunities for creating jobs and revenue generation.
“Commercial spaceports” are mostly scams. They are “commercial” only in the respect of providing 6-figure jobs for spaceport management and market pay to their sparse team of subordinates. Every “commercial” spaceport except Mojave is insolvent if typical “commercial” metrics are applied. In my heart, I wish Virgin Galactic success, but in my “commercial” brain, I don’t like the business model odds once they have the inevitable accident. And Spaceport America will fare less well than VG since if VG is successful, why wouldn’t they relocate to Spaceport Houston, Spaceport Titusville, Spaceport Denver, Spaceport Riyadh, or Spaceport …?
Yes, folks view them as airports to space but they really should be seen as space technology development parks. That is one of the secrets of Mojave’s success. The other is that most of the infrastructure there was paid for before it became an air & space port. It would be easy to turn Spaceport America in a revenue generator instead of it being a money pit, I put two sets of business models together for it in the 1990’s that would do just that, but it would require a completely different mindset by those running it.