Spaceport marks 20 years, renews economic development partnership

LAS CRUCES — Leadership and business allies of New Mexico’s publicly owned commercial spaceport gathered Monday to mark 20 years since Sir Richard Branson and then-Gov. Bill Richardson announced that Virgin Galactic would establish launch operations at the Sierra County facility.

The announcement came in December 2005, after the state Legislature created the Spaceport America Regional District to collect and distribute a 0.25% local gross receipts tax supporting the design, engineering and construction of the spaceport. Voters in Doña Ana County approved the tax in 2007 by a margin of 270 votes, followed by Sierra County in 2008. Otero County voters rejected the spaceport GRT in 2008.

At Spaceport America’s business offices in Las Cruces, over 30 people assembled for a retrospective of the spaceport’s origins and to witness the signing of a new three-year memorandum of understanding between the New Mexico Spaceport Authority and the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance.

The agreement commits the two entities to collaborating on advancing the region’s aerospace industry through marketing the spaceport and region to relevant companies. The agreement calls for a joint working group focused on “identifying specific projects and initiatives, establishing timelines and monitoring their implementation.” The agreement does not provide for financial commitments between the spaceport and MVEDA.

Spaceport America Executive Director Scott McLaughlin delivered a bullish update about space industries, including satellite and reusable rocket technologies, drones and more — most of these fields represented among the spaceport’s tenants and other clients. Virgin Galactic, the spaceport’s anchor tenant, is currently focused on developing a new fleet of space planes and laid off much of its local workforce in 2023. It projects regular commercial flights will begin in 2026, ramping up to more than 200 flights annually.

McLaughlin said the spaceport is also seeking approval of a reentry license from the Federal Aviation Administration, which would allow vehicles returning from space to land at the spaceport. Currently, only suborbital flights launch from the facility, located outside of Truth or Consequences.

“The long-term goal for the spaceport is not just one customer or a few applications, but building the whole region and working toward orbital launch,” McLaughlin said.

“Spaceport really meant a lot more than just a new asset that the state of New Mexico is bringing to fruition,” MVEDA CEO Davin Lopez said. “It really sent a message across the world, across all industries, that New Mexico is willing to take chances.”

Twenty years ago, the prospect of building a commercial spaceport in the New Mexico desert was based primarily on Virgin Galactic’s dream of pioneering passenger flights to the edge of space. While it has successfully launched crewed flights, the company has been met with setbacks and delays, leaving room for competitors such as SpaceX and Blue Origin to launch celebrated crewed missions of their own.

In the meantime, Spaceport America has faced skeptical legislators, some of whom have mused about selling off the facility to private enterprise.

At a meeting of the Legislature’s Economic and Rural Development and Policy Committee this summer, state Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, advocated selling the spaceport, which received 60% of its 2024 revenue from operations and 40% from the state’s general fund, if it doesn’t become profitable. Montoya remarked, “Government is not really good at turning a profit in anything.”

A recent report by New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center estimated the spaceport contributed nearly $240 million in economic output in 2024, a decline from $266 million in 2023 yet representing more than three times the 2019 figure of $72.3 million. The report tallied a total of 790 direct jobs in 2024, a 19.8% decrease from 2023’s peak of 985 jobs.

To help make the case for the spaceport’s impacts and growth potential, McLaughlin, who has led the spaceport since 2021, has recently entered into partnerships with the Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance and the El Paso, Texas-based Borderplex Alliance, while continuing its two-decade collaboration with MVEDA.

Dolores Lucero, a former Las Cruces city council member and current board member of the state’s Spaceport Authority, said the relationship “makes so much sense in pushing this forward and in the hope we have, and the vision that we have, and just the pride that we have that New Mexico, Las Cruces, Doña Ana County, Sierra County can be a part of this.”