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Copyright © 2012 Albuquerque Journal
A bill that would limit the liability of spacecraft-related manufacturers and suppliers could spur two or three major companies to set up operations at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, the chief executive of the spaceport’s anchor tenant said Tuesday.
George Whitesides, president of Virgin Galactic, told the Journal his company’s plans to launch tourists into space from New Mexico won’t change if Senate Bill 3 isn’t passed during this state legislative session. But limiting potential spaceport tenants’ exposure to lawsuits would allow New Mexico to compete for space-related business against Texas, Florida and Virginia, which have already limited manufacturer and supplier liability, he said.
New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association President David J. Stout said the bill isn’t necessary for the spaceport “to proceed with a fully viable economic development” and that it expands immunity from lawsuit “in some unprecedented ways.”
Stout said that if the bill becomes law “a manufacturer could supply a completely defective component to the spaceport in any aspect of its operations. If that caused a catastrophic event, a catastrophic injury, there’d be no recourse because this legislation creates absolute immunity. That is our primary objection.”
Whitesides said that Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., which has a $100 million federal contract to develop a prototype spacecraft, would consider locating at the spaceport if the bill passes. Whitesides said employment at the spaceport could double if two more big tenants locate operations there.
The New Mexico Spaceport Authority, the state agency that runs the spaceport, told Legislative Council Service analysts it expects to lose one prospective tenant to another state in the coming fiscal year, absent the bill, at a cost of at least $1 million a year in revenue.
A 2010 law, which Stout said was the result of a “carefully negotiated compromise,” already limits Virgin Galactic’s liability to its passengers. According to the LFC, under SB3 manufacturers and suppliers “will not be liable to passengers for injury or death on a space flight unless they act intentionally or with gross negligence.”
