New Mexico’s fledgling spaceport took another hit last week when Starchaser Industries decided to scrap plans for a theme park in Las Cruces and look instead to the United Kingdom and Florida for operations.
But as long as Virgin Galactic is still on board with Spaceport America, and if Sierra County voters approve a gross receipts tax increase next month, the project is a go.
Starchaser told the Albuquerque Journal last week that the state’s Spaceport Authority was too focused on Virgin Galactic and didn’t keep its promise to consult the company on spaceport planning. The company also complained about what the Journal paraphrased as “repeated run-ins with local bureaucracies in Las Cruces, including zoning problems and a city land deal that failed after city officials requested more company financial information.”
The situation in Las Cruces came up in 2006 when the city was trying to give land at the East Mesa Industrial Park to Starchaser. The city asked for financial information that Starchaser refused to provide, saying it had already provided it. Talks with the city fell apart.
About the same time, the company replaced all North American staffers – all of them based in Las Cruces. And a deal to purchase land near Hatch for an astronaut training facility never came to fruition.
Starchaser resurfaced in 2007 when it bought land west of Las Cruces for a rocket manufacturing and astronaut training facility that was to be co-located with a tourist stop that would include retail, lodging and entertainment areas.
So much for that. The company’s CEO complained to the Journal that Starchaser invested more than $700,000 in New Mexico “and didn’t get anything back,” and said if Starchaser had spent that money in Florida or the United Kingdom, “we’d be a lot further along than we are today.”
The state told the newspaper that it did all it could to accommodate Starchaser. But that’s some bad press that isn’t going to do anything to help Spaceport America.
Other upcoming events will give a much clearer picture of the future of the spaceport. Most important is Sierra County’s April 22 vote on whether to raise the gross receipts tax to help fund the spaceport. Approval of the tax would generate some revenue and free up $49 million from Doña Ana County’s tax. Rejection of the tax would be a huge blow to the spaceport because the Doña Ana County money can’t be spent unless the Sierra County tax is approved.
And the spaceport facility currently being planned wasn’t for Starchaser. It’s for Virgin Galactic. That company’s plans are most important to the spaceport. While the others are startup companies, it’s a well-financed, huge corporation. Its commitment to New Mexico still isn’t set in stone, but it has made clear its intentions to locate here and is helping design Spaceport America, a process that is nearing completion.
Final approval of the spaceport’s FAA license should also come soon.
Also keep an eye in the next few months on the Rocket Racing League’s plans. The league broke ground in January on its first hangars at the Las Cruces airport. Delay after delay in the league’s plans may finally be coming to an end.
Then again, the delays may not be coming to an end.
But the Sierra County tax vote and Virgin Galactic’s plans are most important for the spaceport becoming a reality. If Sierra County approves the tax and Virgin Galactic follows by signing a formal lease for the spaceport facility, Spaceport America will be headed in the right direction. The next big test is April 22.
A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the Sierra County tax election was scheduled for April 8.
