German radio telescope company coming to Albuquerque

The stars are aligning for Albuquerque to play a central role in some of the world’s largest space-observation missions, including the Next-Generation Very Large Array and the Smithsonian’s global-telescope project for real-time imaging of black holes.

City and state officials unveiled the latest space-related development Thursday morning, announcing German company mtex Antenna Technology USA’s plan to invest $16 million in a new 70,000-square-foot design, engineering and manufacturing facility at the Sandia Science and Technology Park that will employ at least 62 people. The facility, scheduled to begin operations in 2027, will design and build components for the Next-Generation VLA project, or ngVLA, which will expand the radio telescope observatory in southwest New Mexico by nearly 10-fold.

It will also design and build newly advanced radio telescopes to allow the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to double the number of globally placed antennas that make up its Event Horizon Telescope, which is focused on studying supermassive black holes. The expansion will enable the next-gen global telescope, or ngEHT, to reveal details 100 times fainter than before, allowing the system to produce much-sharper views — and even real-time movies — of black holes in action.

Mark Roper — the state Economic Development Department’s Economic Division director— and Albuquerque Economic Development Director Max Gruner traveled to Wiesbaden, Germany, for the announcement at mtex antenna technology GmbH, the parent company of mtex USA.

The state will grant $1 million in Local Economic Development Act, or LEDA, funding for the mtex facility, and Albuquerque — which will act as fiscal agent for the project — expects to kick-in another $300,000 from its municipal LEDA funds.

“Together with our partners, we’re making investments that are transforming Albuquerque’s economy and creating more pathways to success for our families,” Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement. “We continue to foster a welcoming tech ecosystem so that we can bring good-paying, advanced-manufacturing jobs like these to our community.”

The German firm and other companies are tapping into New Mexico’s skilled workforce and the state’s long history in scientific innovation, said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

“New Mexico is the place to be for advanced science and engineering, and now these high-paying jobs are coming to New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

Indeed, mtex CEO Lutz Stenvers said New Mexico is the “optimal location” for the company, given its workforce, education, livability, business operating costs, and logistical transportation connections to mtex’s U.S. customers.

“We are bringing investments in technology, engineering, and machining to Albuquerque,” Stenvers said. “We feel it’s the place to be right now as we look forward to possible collaborations with the University of New Mexico, engineering schools such as New Mexico Tech, and other high-tech companies.”

Apart from developing and manufacturing antennas and telescopes, mtex also supplies antenna systems and ground stations for satellites, and for spacecraft communications for industry, research and government agencies. That includes comprehensive services such as engineering, installation, maintenance, upgrades and after-sale services.

The company is also planning a second Albuquerque facility near the initial one for testing and integration for telescope and satellite ground stations.

“It’s one step at a time, but they’re already talking about that next step,” Keller told the Journal. “What they’re already doing with this first facility bodes well for expansion in the near future.”

The city and state worked together to recruit mtex to New Mexico, but the company initially reached out on its own to explore operations here, especially given the work it’s doing for the ngVLA project.

“They came to us after hearing about us through site selection and industry partners,” Keller said. “Proximity to the Very Large Array made it a natural place to look.”

But the city and state actively courted the company, meeting with mtex executives at the Albuquerque International Sunport earlier this year. And city Economic Development Director Max Gruner’s native German fluency helped facilitate negotiations, making the deal a “Max Gruner special,” Keller joked.

“They were surprised and excited to speak German with Max,” Keller said. “It quickly became clear what they wanted to do and how we could help, which made it pretty easy to put everything together at that point.”

Stenvers said those direct connections helped speed the company’s plans and decision-making.

“I must underline that, thanks to Max Gruner, Mark Roper (of EDD), and their teams, we feel really welcome as a foreign company coming to Albuquerque. Having a direct personal connection and being guided and supported is for us an important element in our growth story.”

Next-gen VLA

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory, or NRAO — a National Science Foundation agency that manages the Very Large Array in cooperation with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit management corporation Associated Universities Inc. — signed an agreement with mtex in 2021 to develop a production-ready design and prototype for the next-gen VLA antennas,. They will be tested at the VLA site near Magdalena, about 50 miles west of Socorro.

NSF awarded NRAO $23 million for that design work as part of a massive, 15-year VLA expansion plan that will increase the number of antennas connected to the array from 27 now to about 260 by 2035. About 80% of those antennas will be located in New Mexico, with the rest scattered around sites in West Texas, eastern Arizona, and northern Mexico, plus additional ones in eight other states and U.S. territories stretching from Hawaii to New Hampshire.

The VLA, which became fully operational in 1980, is already the world’s premier radio telescope facility, allowing scientists to detect faint radio waves in the far reaches of the universe. But the project expansion will provide an order of magnitude in additional sensitivity — increasing its current ability to pick up space signals that range from 1 to 50 gigahertz now to over 100 gigahertz in the future.

The project could cost up to $2.4 billion to build and $92 million a year to operate, potentially expanding VLA staff from 150 now to 400. And many of those new employees could be stationed in Albuquerque, thanks to a new memorandum of understanding that the NRAO and Associated Universities signed in early September with the University of New Mexico to increase collaboration among scientific and engineering staff through sharing of facilities and computing resources.

Under the agreement, NRAO and UNM will explore the potential to turn UNM’s College of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Physics & Astronomy into a host site for the ngVLA data processing and science operations center, said Chris Lippitt, College of Arts & Sciences associate dean for research.

“This partnership with NRAO ... could bring more than 200 of the world’s best radio astronomers and engineers to the UNM campus, resulting in unparalleled education and training opportunities for UNM’s astronomy students and hundreds of new, high-paying jobs in New Mexico,” Lippitt said in a statement following the Sept. 11 MOU announcement.

The mtex investment adds a new dimension to those community partnerships and prospects for professional and industry development, said NRAO Director Tony Beasley.

“New Mexico has shown its commitment to its future on the international scientific stage by investing in this new mtex facility,” Beasley said in a statement Thursday. “…Knowing that part of the production of our ngVLA antennas will happen right here in Albuquerque gives us an even more solid foundation to create the next great instrument for the astronomy community.”

Event Horizon Telescope

The Smithsonian and Harvard University’s Center for Astrophysics, or CfA, also selected mtex in August to design, develop and build antennas for the expansion of the Event Horizon Telescope, adding up to 10 more radio antennas to the 11 EHT systems already scattered around the world. The current network — which is linked to create a planet-sized virtual telescope — produced the first image of a black hole in 2019, widely considered one of the most-viewed scientific images of all time.

The CfA contract is broken into three phases for mtex to do antenna design work in the first stage, build a prototype in the second, and then construct up to five new antennas in the final phase. The company will do integration and testing of the EHT antennas at its new facility in Albuquerque.

The company’s planned operations in New Mexico will directly contribute to the city and state’s burgeoning space industry, adding design and integration of high-precision telescopes to the business landscape, said Danielle Casey, president and CEO of the Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance, or AREA, which assisted in mtex’s local expansion plans.

More than 16,000 people are currently employed in aerospace-connected industries in the greater metropolitan area, according to AREA.

“The greater Albuquerque region is paving the way to becoming a top location for innovation industry investment,” Casey said. “…This investment further augments the economic environment of greater Albuquerque and is a huge win for the region and the state of New Mexico.”