Courtesy photo
Gov. Susana Martinez, left, and Virgin Galactic head Richard Branson at the dedication of the company’s facility at Spaceport America in October. (Courtesy Virgin Galactic)
‘…we expect to be operationally self-sufficient within one year of Virgin Galactic’s start of operations,’ Christine M. Anderson writes in newspaper column
Spaceport America’s executive director says she expects the facility to be “operationally self-sufficient” within a year of Virgin Galactic starting its flights.
Of course, there’s still no firm date for the start of Virgin Galactic flights, which will ferry paying passengers into suborbital space.
Christine M. Anderson made the statement about self-sufficiency in a guest column published today by the Albuquerque Journal that you can read here.
“The people of New Mexico made an investment for the commercial space industry, which is now paying off,” Anderson wrote. “…it’s important for taxpayers to know that the spaceport will be bringing millions of dollars into our economy, and it’s not just Virgin Galactic that’s spending money.”
Virgin Galactic is the big tenant. Anderson wrote that the company will pay somewhere between $150 million and $250 million to the state through its lease and fees over the next 20 years.
“However, there is much more on the horizon for Spaceport America, and we expect to be operationally self-sufficient within one year of Virgin Galactic’s start of operations,” she wrote.
Anderson highlighted customers of the spaceport including UP Aerospace, which recently won a multi-million dollar NASA contract and a separate contract from the Department of Defense, and Armadillo Aerospace, which has launched from the spaceport twice this year and plans a third launch before the end of the year.
Anderson wrote that, to date, the Spaceport Authority has employed 973 New Mexicans. She projected “approximately 500 jobs in the next three years and approximately 2,000 jobs by 2016.”
Flights may begin in 2013
As the Wall Street Journal reported in late October, Virgin Galactic’s chief pilot says the company probably won’t start passenger flights until 2013. The company initially planned to start flights in 2008 but there have been several delays.
The company is no longer officially predicting when those flights will begin.
Still, Virgin Galactic is working toward flying paying passengers into suborbital space. According to the Journal, the company has invested about $270 million in its efforts, including the development of its spacecraft. The company and the state dedicated Virgin Galactic’s facility at the spaceport in October.
And, as New Mexico Business Weekly recently reported, the company is renting a 2,500-square-foot office in Las Cruces to be its New Mexico headquarters. The company will move into the office in January and house about a dozen employees there.