{"id":34157,"date":"2011-12-05T07:23:55","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T14:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=34157"},"modified":"2011-12-05T12:29:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T19:29:31","slug":"spaceport-will-be-self-sufficient-director-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/12\/spaceport-will-be-self-sufficient-director-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaceport will be self-sufficient, director says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Gov. Susana Martinez, left, and Virgin Galactic head Richard Branson at the dedication of the company\u2019s facility at Spaceport America in October. (Courtesy Virgin Galactic)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018\u2026we expect to be operationally self-sufficient within one year of Virgin Galactic\u2019s start of operations,\u2019 Christine M. Anderson writes in newspaper column<\/h4>\n

Spaceport America\u2019s<\/a> executive director says she expects the facility to be \u201coperationally self-sufficient\u201d within a year of Virgin Galactic<\/a> starting its flights.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s still no firm date for the start of Virgin Galactic flights, which will ferry paying passengers into suborbital space.<\/p>\n

Christine M. Anderson made the statement about self-sufficiency in a guest column published today by the Albuquerque Journal that you can read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of New Mexico made an investment for the commercial space industry, which is now paying off,\u201d Anderson wrote. \u201c\u2026it\u2019s important for taxpayers to know that the spaceport will be bringing millions of dollars into our economy, and it\u2019s not just Virgin Galactic that\u2019s spending money.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there is much more on the horizon for Spaceport America, and we expect to be operationally self-sufficient within one year of Virgin Galactic\u2019s start of operations,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Anderson highlighted customers of the spaceport including UP Aerospace<\/a>, which recently won a multi-million dollar NASA contract and a separate contract from the Department of Defense, and Armadillo Aerospace<\/a>, which has launched from the spaceport twice this year and plans a third launch before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Anderson wrote that, to date, the Spaceport Authority has employed 973 New Mexicans. She projected \u201capproximately 500 jobs in the next three years and approximately 2,000 jobs by 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flights may begin in 2013<\/h3>\n

As the Wall Street Journal reported in late October<\/a>, Virgin Galactic\u2019s chief pilot says the company probably won\u2019t start passenger flights until 2013. The company initially planned to start flights in 2008 but there have been several delays.<\/p>\n

The company is no longer officially predicting when those flights will begin.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s facility at the spaceport in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, as New Mexico Business Weekly recently reported<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spaceport America\u2019s executive director says she expects the facility to be \u201coperationally self-sufficient\u201d within a year of Virgin Galactic starting its flights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[118,107,141],"class_list":["post-34157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-economy","tag-roundhouse","tag-spaceport-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34157","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=34157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}