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FROM THE DIRECTOR
Happy Spring! The trees are starting to bloom in southern New Mexico. We are continuing our all-hands training in anticipation of increased flight activity shortly. We are revamping our Visitor Experience (see below) and working with the county to begin construction on the long awaited southern access road to the Spaceport, now that the legislature has provided additional funding. Late breaking news, we were just informed that the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space building was awarded the 2014 Jeff Harnar Contemporary Architecture Award. Congratulations to SMPC Architects of Albuquerque and the entire design team.
We hope these newsletters are helpful in keeping you up to date on Spaceport activities. Feel free to send questions or comments to us via our website (http://spaceportamerica.com/).
Chris
Christine Anderson, Executive Director
New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA)
TECHNICAL OPERATIONS UPDATE
The technical team continued to work with the US Army White Sands Missile Range and the FAA Albuquerque Center on airspace procedures that will guide routine space flight operations.
The team also participated in more table top drills to better prepare for all contingencies and is continuing to work with launch customers to facilitate future flight activity.
CONSTRUCTION AND PRE-OPERATIONS UPDATE
We are preparing to release a request for proposals for the new entrance and guard station replacing our temporary trailers. Watch for that announcement on our website. We are also planning an entrance round-about that will feature art work provided through the New Mexico Art in Public Places program that will greet visitors as they arrive.
SpaceX continues to perform site infrastructure development for the Falcon 9R launch program. Virgin Galactic is working on the interior fit-out of the Gateway building.
The Spaceport Southern Access Road design is undergoing the final revisions by Doña Ana County in coordination with Sierra County. This road is an essential route to the spaceport from southern locations like Las Cruces or El Paso. NMSA continues to hold $8.1M for the first phase of the road construction. The New Mexico legislature approved in this session an additional $6.4M. Doña Ana County is planning to release the request for proposals shortly once final approval is provided by the BLM and State Land Office.
VISITOR EXPERIENCE
The revamped plan for the Visitor Experience is to distribute all show content between the Truth or Consequences Visitor Center and the 4000 square feet public gallery area in the Gateway to Space building. The larger on-site visitor complex will have to wait until we have earned the revenue to build it – one of those future spaceport improvement projects. Visitors will still be able to enjoy all the planned activities, just in a smaller area.
MEDIA COVERAGE
The month of February featured a lot of media coverage for Spaceport America due to the New Mexico Legislative session. Christine Anderson gave several interviews with multiple media outlets including a Santa Fe radio station (KSFR-FM), the Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque Business First and the Las Cruces Sun-News.
The spaceport recently hosted media tours for Swedish Daily News, Svenska Dagblade, and the Dutch newspaper, de Volkskrant. USA TODAY had a nice write-up in February on the Spaceport America Preview Tours by Follow the Sun. The spaceport tour will also be featured on the Albuquerque KASA TV morning travel segment soon. A feature story on the spaceport’s futuristic looking architecture will be appearing in an upcoming issue of The Architect’s Newspaper.
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