{"id":3094,"date":"2008-04-14T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T21:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/rocket-racing-tops-list-of-news-about-the-spaceport\/"},"modified":"2008-04-14T15:54:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-14T21:54:00","slug":"rocket-racing-tops-list-of-news-about-the-spaceport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/rocket-racing-tops-list-of-news-about-the-spaceport\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket racing tops list of news about the spaceport"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>New Mexico<\/st1:state>\u2019s fledgling commercial space industry got a boost today when the Rocket Racing League<\/a> finally announced, after two years of delays, an exhibition race schedule that includes a contest in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> race will coincide with the 2008 X Prize Cup<\/a> in October, but the date and exact location of the race haven\u2019t been announced. The league made the announcement today along with announcements of two other exhibition races. One will be held Aug. 1 and 2 at EAA AirVenture<\/a> in Oshkosh<\/st1:city>, Wis.<\/st1:state>, the largest air show in the world, and the other will be held Nov. 8 and 9 at Aviation Nation<\/a>, an air show that will be held at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas<\/st1:city>, Nev.<\/st1:state><\/st1:place><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first exhibition race of the Rocket Racer is an important milestone in the progression of the Rocket Racing League,\u201d said Granger Whitelaw, the company\u2019s chief executive officer. \u201cWe look forward to sharing the experience and thrill of rocket racing with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It is an important milestone, but one that was supposed to take place in October 2006 at the X Prize Cup. The company hasn\u2019t been able to recruit teams as easily as it originally anticipated and has had funding delays. But the league broke ground on its first hangars at the Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> airport in January \u2013 it plans to locate its headquarters near the airport \u2013 and is now setting up exhibition races. It appears things are finally getting off the ground.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The league plans races that pit up to 10 racers against each other on virtual, closed-circuit tracks in the sky. The racers can fly at up to 320 mph, and the league plans to eventually hold races at Spaceport America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Other spaceport news<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Which brings us to the upcoming April 22 spaceport tax vote in Sierra<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>. The state has already appropriated more than $100 million for the spaceport, and Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> has approved a tax increase that would provide $49 million, but only if another county also raises taxes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That means the Sierra vote is critical for the project, which two studies have predicted could create thousands of new jobs and insert hundreds of millions of dollars of new money into the Las Cruces-area economy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Rocket Racing League\u2019s announcement, made today, is one of several in recent days designed to fill the news with positive headlines in advance of next week\u2019s vote in Sierra<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>. State officials did the same just before the Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> tax vote last year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the other news:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Last week, the state announced that the Spaceport Authority had voted to give Executive Director Steve Landeene the authority to sign a legally binding \u201cdevelopment agreement\u201d with planned anchor tenant Virgin Galactic<\/a>. The agreement would commit the firm to a 20-year lease at the spaceport, but it is not a lease itself. The agreement does not include financial terms, which the state says will come at a later date.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 UP Aerospace<\/a>, the company that has twice launched rockets into space from a temporary facility at Spaceport America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, announced with the Spaceport Authority a memorandum of understanding for a 10-year agreement to make the spaceport its home for launches. The agreement is not legally binding.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Microgravity Enterprises Inc.<\/a> has entered into a memorandum of understanding to operate from Spaceport America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. The company pays to fly ingredients into space for use in consumer products and also plans to do educational and pharmaceutical work. This is another non-legally binding agreement.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The problem with nonbinding memorandums<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You might recall that, just before last year\u2019s tax vote in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>, Virgin Galactic signed a memorandum of understanding<\/a> that wasn\u2019t legally binding but included exact rates the state said would be included in an eventual lease with Virgin. The company pledged to sign a lease as soon as Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> voters approved the tax, which voters did in April 2007.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Virgin has still not signed a lease. Now it may sign what the state is calling a \u201cprecursor\u201d to a lease \u2013 an agreement that commits it to a lease but not to any dollar amount. Last year\u2019s agreement was called, at the time, an \u201cimmediate precursor\u201d to a lease by the man who was, at the time, the spaceport authority director.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What happened to the rates Virgin and the state agreed to last year? If there\u2019s nothing in the document the state wants Virgin to sign that would prevent the state from eventually offering it a 20-year lease for $1, the new \u201cdevelopment agreement\u201d isn\u2019t much better than the nonbinding memorandum Virgin signed last year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

And these memorandums with other companies that have been announced in the last few days aren\u2019t legally binding. So what is their value? We\u2019ve already seen that the memorandum Virgin signed last year meant little. The most important fact in that memorandum was the statement that Virgin would pay $27.5 million over the course of the 20-year lease. That\u2019s still not in any legally binding document, so it\u2019s not set in stone.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That gives fuel to the arguments of those who say these memorandums are nothing more than publicity stunts to push Sierra<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> voters to approve the tax. Others will argue that they\u2019re significant steps toward legally binding documents \u2013 and they may be \u2013 but I still haven\u2019t received a good answer about why Virgin hasn\u2019t signed the lease it said it would last year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Two public forums on spaceport<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Want to ask questions or learn more information about the spaceport? There are two forums on Tuesday that will provide people with the opportunity.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The first is at 1:15 p.m. It\u2019s a presentation to the Hot Springs<\/st1:placename> High School<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> student body in the school\u2019s gym, located at 1200 N. Pershing Street<\/a> in T or C. The event is open to the press but not the public.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The second forum is at 6 p.m. at the same place and is open to the public. Both meetings will be attended by Will Whitehorn from Virgin Galactic, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> and Landeene. Land Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a> will also attend the 6 p.m. meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico\u2019s fledgling commercial space industry got a boost today when the Rocket Racing League finally announced, after two years of delays, an exhibition race schedule that includes a contest in Las Cruces. The Las Cruces race will coincide with the 2008 X Prize Cup in October, but the date and exact location of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}