TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NM – The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) Board of Directors reviewed plans today to design, build and program the Spaceport America Visitor Experience. The plan includes two off-site Welcome Centers located in the Village of Hatch in Doña Ana County and in Truth or Consequences in Sierra County, plus an on-site Visitors Center and specially developed behind-the-scenes tours as well as the chance to visit the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space.

The Spaceport America Visitor Experience will be a professionally designed immersion into the excitement of the world’s first purpose-built, commercial spaceport. Guests will be invited to explore the history, adventure, potential and inspiration of both the next space-age. Officials project attendance will grow to more than 200,000 visitors annually.

“The Spaceport Experience begins on-line long before a guest arrives at a Welcome Center” explained Bob Allen, IDEAS Chief Storytelling Officer. “There will be a robust virtual environment offering games, mobile apps and content so that especially our younger guests will already feel a part of the new space age by the time they come for a visit.” Kelly Pounds, IDEAS Vice President of Learning, noted that a lot of the content will have an educational focus. “We’ll have a special section for educators incorporating lesson plans, instructionally and designed interactives as well as a way for teachers to establish a dialogue with Spaceport for long-term collaboration.

“The Welcome Centers are the “mission briefing” areas where guests become part of the spaceport crew, get updated on current activity, get their credentials and catch a shuttle,” said Allen. The shuttles, designed as traveling theaters are an integral part of the experience. Because Spaceport America is a part of a rich portfolio of regional tourism, the Welcome Centers will also feature a “regional trailhead” where guests can learn about and plan multi-day itineraries. Once guests arrive at Spaceport America, they enter the onsite Visitors Center, which will feature hands-on access to space technology and artifacts from recent launches, the opportunity to create a payload and manifest it for flight, interactive and simulation based experiences and a theater. From the Visitors Center, guests can take a guided in-depth shuttle tour of the entire spaceport finishing at the entrance to the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space where they will get a chance to see in depth into the exciting reality of the world’s first passenger spaceship fleet. Allen noted that, “we are designing a learning-enriched, hands-on immersion into what space is going to be about for the next twenty years. We want a relationship with our guests that lasts generations.”

Comprised of nine companies with rich experience in the design, development, operation and marketing of location-based entertainment, TEAM IDEAS was hired by NMSA to create a memorable visitor experience for Spaceport America, and to create a plan that will meet the needs of visitors and enhance regional tourism. The team evaluated six potential Welcome Center sites in Hatch and eight sites in Truth or Consequences using metrics and criteria developed in the destination hospitality industry before recommending a site in each community with proximity and easy access to I-25 to enhance guest wayfinding and brand visibility.  Officials with NMSA and TEAM IDEAS emphasized a focus on the commercial success of the visitor experience as the best way to make a positive impact on local communities.

The NMSA Board of Directors indicated their support for the plan, with NMSA Chairman Rick Holdridge saying, “After reviewing the TEAM IDEAS recommendations and reconciling it with our budget and commitment to the two counties, we are confident that we have a winning solution fulfilling the promise of economic development, tourism and education.”

Next steps in the development process include the release of Requests for Proposals (RFP) targeting outside investment in Visitor Experience facilities from private developers, the development of a unified visual spaceport brand identity, and continued refinement of the plans as presented. The initial Spaceport America Visitor Experience is expected to reach operational capacity in 2013, about the time Virgin Galactic is intending to begin their commercial operations from Spaceport America. In the meantime, Spaceport America Preview Tours will provide visitors a taste of the project until the full Visitor Experience is ready.

About Spaceport America

Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. Phase One of the construction for the spaceport is expected to be complete in early 2012. Phase Two of the construction and pre-operations activities will follow, including the development of a world-class Visitor Experience for students, tourists and space launch customers, the vertical launch complex improvements and the paving of the southern road to the spaceport. When Phase Two construction is completed in 2013, Spaceport America will become fully operational.

Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with entrepreneurial space leaders like UP Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and Armadillo Aerospace, as well as established aerospace firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and MOOG-FTS to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on the promise of economic development to the people of New Mexico.

For more information, please visit: www.spaceportamerica.com
For more information on Preview Tours of the Spaceport, please visit: www.ftstours.com
Facebook: Spaceport America, or follow us on Twitter: @Spaceport_NM

About TEAM IDEAS

IDEAS is an innovation studio using the power of story to provide creative, design and production services for entertainment, marketing and learning clients. IDEAS was created in 2001 in a management buyout from The Walt Disney Company and serves clients in enterprise and government worldwide. The company operates from its studio headquarters in downtown Orlando’s Creative Village.

Other team members include: Integrated Insight, Inc.; ORCA Consulting LLC; Cordova Marketing Group; Exline Design and Architecture; MYDesign, Inc.; and Blackhorse Worldwide. Team members from New Mexico include SMPC Architects and Larry Littlebird of Albuquerque, NM. The contract called for companies to create partnerships to provide a wide range of services to develop the spaceport’s Visitor Experience.

TEAM IDEAS members have provided a broad range of services in experience development for a list of clients that includes every major Walt Disney theme park & resort around the world, major Universal Studios theme parks, NASCAR, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the U.S. Capitol, the Statue of Liberty, the United States Air Force and the United States Navy. This caliber of relevant experience makes the team well-suited to develop the story, design, market analytics, operational strategy, and facilities of the Spaceport America Visitor Experience.

For more information, please visit: www.ideasorlando.com

Facebook: Ideas Orlando

View of the Rio Grande River Valley from 239,000 ft (~50 mi) aboard Armadillo Aerospace’s STIG-A rocket launched from Spaceport America, taken January 28, 2012. Photo courtesy of Armadillo Aerospace.

Release courtesy of Spaceport America

Upham, NM – New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced today a launch of a “STIG-A” rocket designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace. The launch took place from Spaceport America’s vertical launch complex on Saturday, January 28, 2012. The research and development test flight was a non-public, unpublished event at the request of Armadillo Aerospace, as the company is testing proprietary advanced launch technologies.

Saturday’s Armadillo launch successfully lifted off at approximately 11:15 a.m. (MDT), which was within the dedicated, five-hour launch window, and flight data indicates the rocket attained a maximum altitude of approximately 82-km (~50 miles). A failure of the ballute (balloon-parachute) recovery system meant that the GPS-steerable main parachute could not be deployed as intended; however, the vehicle was successfully recovered within the predicted operating area and the nose cone and ballute were separately recovered intact on the Spaceport property.

“This vehicle was the same one that flew on December 4^th, 2011, and successfully demonstrated the feasibility of a reusable rocket,” said Neil Milburn, Vice President of Program Management for Armadillo Aerospace. “The altitude achieved in this second flight was approximately twice that of the earlier flight and again tested many of the core technologies needed for the proposed manned reusable suborbital vehicle.”

The images captured by the rocket-mounted camera at apogee also serve to indicate the spectacular views of the Rio Grande valley that await future private astronauts.

The next incremental step for Armadillo Aerospace will be a 100-km (~62 miles) -plus “space shot” with the successor vehicle STIG-B, which is provisionally scheduled to launch in early spring from Spaceport America.

About Armadillo Aerospace

Founded in 2000, Armadillo Aerospace has an unequaled experience base with over 200 flight tests spread over a dozen different vehicles. The company has done work for NASA and the United States Air Force, and flown vehicles at every X-Prize Cup and Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge event, including those held in New Mexico from 2006 to 2008.

For more information, please visit http://www.armadilloaerospace.com.

About Space Adventures (media contact for Armadillo Aerospace)

Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the world’s first private space explorers, is headquartered in Vienna, VA, with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft.

For more information, please visit www.spaceadventures.com.

About Spaceport America

Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. Phase One of the construction for the spaceport is expected to be complete in early 2012.  Phase Two of the construction and pre-operations activities will follow, including the development of a world-class Visitor Experience for students, tourists and space launch customers. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with entrepreneurial space leaders like Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and UP Aerospace, as well as established aerospace firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and MOOG-FTS to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on the promise of economic development to the people of New Mexico.

For more information, please visit: www.spaceportamerica.com.

With Virgin Galactic developing its spaceliner and new launch testing at Spaceport America, the first jobs created by the spaceport are coming, members of a panel said.  At the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce community update forum Tuesday, Jan. 10, at the Doña Ana County Government Center, Wayne Savage of the chamber’s spaceport committee said the forum was about making Spaceport America bring about the promise of jobs. We’re beginning to see things take place, and we’re seeing opportunities show up, and that’s what we’re here for,” Savage said.

Chad Rabon of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) said the first phase of construction on the $209 million spaceport between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences is almost complete. To get Spaceport America ready for business with a runway, vertical launch area, several support facilities and the terminal hangar for its anchor tenant Virgin Galactic. NMSA is now starting the spaceport’s second construction phase, which Rabon said includes paving the southern road leading to the complex. It was recently announced that the surfacing of the already wide and well-grated county road won’t require time-consuming environmental studies.

Spaceport America operations are located the Lewis Cain Ranch and is surrounded by similar desert range ranches 45 miles north of Las Cruces.

The next construction phase includes adding more pads and support facilities to the spaceport’s vertical area, Robin said. NMSA is currently accepting bids on contracts to provide information technology and space operations support.

Already, activity at NMSU is picking up for research and development of new systems, such as reusable rocket boosters, with Lockheed Martin winning an Air Force contract to test its design for such a system at Spaceport America.

NMSA’s Aaron Prescott said Armadillo Aerospace has tested more traditional rocket prototypes with three launches since May. Also, Boeing will test a helicopter avionics system at the spaceport, he said. The new construction will provide a second pad for vertical launches and rollback shelter for these kinds of tests, Prescott said. The current Spaceport America vertical launch facility was developed for UP Aerospace that has been launching sounding rockets since 2006 to send a variety of small payloads into suborbital space.

With the State Legislature about to start its new session, Prescott mentioned spaceport supporters are pushing for refining the 2010 law that protects companies such as Virgin Galactic from lawsuits as something goes wrong with a flight carrying passengers. The informed consent legislation didn’t extend those protections to suppliers of the spaceship companies, but competing states have passed protections granting protections to support industries.  “It doesn’t help us very much to protect the operator, but not the supplier,” Prescott said. “This is key for Spaceport America to remain competitive with other states.”

Mark Butler of Virgin Galactic, who moved from England to New Mexico, said the company is making progress on the safety and flight testing of its prototype of the kind of thrilling but- upscale suborbital flights it plans to give passengers for $200,000 a ride.  The craft that will carry the six-passenger spaceship to 50,000 feet for midair launches, the White Knight 2, has completed about 80 flights reaching important altitude and duration goals, Butler said.

Testing has begun with Spaceship 2 more than 15 “captive carry” flights and 16 release and- glide tests, Butler said. The hybrid engine – the world’s largest such engines – is being tested, he said, and the company won’t start taking passengers into space until the system performs safely, he said.  “We are now pushing the envelope on that system,” Butler said. “Yes, this is rocket science, so it takes a while. … This kind of thing does take a long time, and this is the first time this is being done so we are going to take the time to do it right.”

Butler reported that five Virgin Galactic staff members are now using office space in Las Cruces.  Once the flights begin on a regular basis, Butler said Virgin is going to need human resources and financial people, all the normal behind-the-scenes people. Also, there will be people hired to provide a variety of customer services, he said.  The space business goes beyond needing engineers and other technical staff, but also hospitality and other support staff, Butler said. Virgin does intend to buy local supplies as much as possible, he said.

“It’s important for us to get our supply chain to New Mexico,” Butler said.  With $60 million in deposits and more than 500 signed up as future astronauts, Virgin has “a hugely busy year ahead of us,” he said. To work for Virgin, Butler recommended patience and persistence.

Meanwhile, Fiore Industries won the contract for providing protective services to the spaceport, including security, EMS, fire protection and hazardous materials control. Fiore’s Tim Zagorski said the company is hiring people with local experience and subcontracted with local entities such Sierra Vista Hospital and the Las Cruces-based Zia Engineering “We strongly believe in local economic development,” he said “ We even rent power generators from a local company and buy fuel locally.”

Fiore will be looking to buy fire equipment, EMS vehicles and equipment in the near future, he said, and the company is seeking applicants for security guards, firefighters and EMTs. The company will need 15 security guards and 15 firefighters/EMTs, along with some office and compliance support, he said.

Also at the forum was Paul Schmidt of EASI, general services contractor, that will be running spaceport functions, such as water and wastewater, fuel depot operations, electrical systems, roads and grounds upkeep, runway maintenance, generator maintenance and repair, janitorial services, pest control and even HazMat clean-up and removal.

By Diana Alba Soular

LAS CRUCES – Virgin Galactic recently relocated U.K.-based staff to Las Cruces, advertised some new hiring and announced its leasing office space off Roadrunner Parkway – all signs of an operational ramp up in southern New Mexico that will continue throughout 2012. The moves are in preparation for the start of space tourism flights from Spaceport America just north of Dona Ana County – possibly in 2013.

But they’re also the most tangible signs of permanent, local job creation since Virgin Galactic – billed as the world’s first commercial spaceline – first courted New Mexico with its suborbital spaceflight proposal seven years ago.

A handful of Virgin Galactic employees have either moved to Las Cruces or are en route as part of the initial team to be based in the city, said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides on Friday. And there are more transfers – and hires – to come, he said. “It’s still a relatively low number, but I think we’re going to see a big ramp up as we approach commercial operations,” he said. “We’re looking at different scenarios, but obviously we’ll be hiring a whole bunch of people locally and nationally.”

At least two Las Cruces-related job postings appeared recently on virgingalactic.com – the best place to watch for openings, according to Whitesides. An IT manager job was based in Las Cruces, while a regulatory compliance manager position was set to start in Mojave, Calif., where the company’s vehicles are being developed, and move to Las Cruces later, according to the postings. Both closed Dec. 31.  But the company may have a couple of hundred local personnel once space tourism flights commence.

They’ll range from blue collar-type jobs to highly skilled, technical positions, according to Whitesides. Virgin Galactic plans to give preference to New Mexicans, he said. “We have to think through the exact process, but we want to hire locally when we can,” he said. “And when a skill is not available, we’ll look nationally, as well.”

Dona Ana County residents, through a self-imposed sales tax, are a big source of funding for the $209 million Spaceport America, construction of which is nearing an end in southern Sierra County. Many county residents who opposed the tax in 2007 questioned whether they’d get a big enough – or any – return on the spending.

State Rep. Andy Nunez, I-Hatch, has been an avid spaceport supporter and carried one of the major bills in 2006 that spurred its creation. But he’s expressed skepticism in recent months about the pace of the entire project. While the building up of Virgin Galactic manpower is a positive, the state needs to get “going and moving” on the spaceport operations. “I think eventually it will pay off, but I think things are moving a little (slower) than I want them to be,” he said.

Virgin Galactic starts paying lease money to the state once it occupies the spaceport’s terminal-hangar – expected in the first part of this year. It’s got a 20-year contract to rent the facility.

Pat Hynes, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, said the relocation of Virgin Galactic staff to Las Cruces is “really significant” because it means Virgin Galactic head Richard Branson is following through on his commitment to base operations from New Mexico. Plus, she said she knows many Virgin Galactic officials who are moving to Las Cruces with their families.  ”We have some really skilled people – very dedicated to this (spaceport) – coming here,” she said. “And Richard Branson is not making money yet. He’s still spending money.”

Spaceport America is located roughly 50 miles north of Las Cruces in southeastern Sierra County. Virgin Galactic officials said recently they plan to open a Las Cruces office sometime this month. It will be located, along with several other tenants, in the Green Offices – an 18,000 square-foot complex at 166 S. Roadrunner Parkway.

Mark Butler, a Virgin Galactic senior project manager who recently moved from the United Kingdom to north Las Cruces, will work at the complex, located between Desert View Elementary School and MountainView Regional Medical Center. Butler is mostly overseeing the outfitting the interior of Spaceport America’s terminal-hangar building to Virgin Galactic’s design – a process that will begin in earnest once the state formally turns over the keys after construction.

But two other main areas of focus are to flesh out a plan for the spaceflight customer experience and the nuts and bolts needed to carry out spaceflights from the spaceport, Whitesides said. “The folks either there or in process of going there are in the process of thinking through those three areas,” Whitesides said.

And, once the Virgin Galactic’s space vehicle development and testing wraps up in Mojave, Calif., the company’s vice president of operations, Mike Moses, will relocate to New Mexico, Whitesides said. Moses, a former top official for the U.S. space shuttle program, visited Las Cruces in recent weeks with the entire operations team.

“I’m just happy to see we’re to the point where they’re coming out here to begin their preparations for the start of operations,” said New Mexico Spaceport Authority Chairman Rick Holdridge. “It’s starting to happen, finally.”

Activity at Spaceport America in 2012 will be up over 2011, and new opportunities for local businesses will be available.  On Tuesday, January 10, 2012, Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic, and key site operations contractors will provide a briefing on upcoming activities as the Commercial Space Committee of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce sponsors the first Spaceport Community Forum of the year.  The meeting will be held from 5:30 – 7:00pm at the Dona Ana County Government Center at 845 N. Motel Blvd in Las Cruces, in the main Commission Chambers.

Representatives from Fiore Industries, Enterprise Advisory Services Inc. (EASi), and Follow The Sun Tours will be on hand to share their roles at Spaceport America, talk about upcoming contract opportunities, and how to engage their procurement processes.  Program updates for 2012 will be provided by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority and Virgin Galactic representatives.  Information will also be presented on other local and statewide procurement registration databases to assist local businesses in identifying opportunities for growing in 2012.

A “business card” drawing will be held to give away four tours passes to Spaceport America with Follow The Sun Tours, operators of the “Spaceport Preview Tours”.  For more information, contact the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce at 575-524-1968.

Armadillo Aerospace's STIG-A Rocket Launches Successfully from Spaceport America

Release courtesy of Spaceport America

Upham, NM – New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced today a successful launch over the weekend of an advanced sounding rocket designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace. The launch took place from Spaceport America’s vertical launch complex on Sun., Dec. 4. The test flight was a non-public, unpublished event at the request of Armadillo Aerospace, as the company is testing proprietary advanced launch technologies.

Saturday’s Armadillo launch successfully lifted off at approximately 11:00 a.m. (MST), which was within the dedicated, five-hour launch window, and reached its projected sub-orbital altitude of 137,500 feet (41.91 km).

“This successful test of our “STIG A” reusable sub-orbital rocket technology represents major progress for the Armadillo Aerospace flight test program,” said Neil Milburn, Vice President of Program Management at Armadillo Aerospace. “The flight successfully demonstrated many of the technologies that we need for our manned sub-orbital program.” Armadillo Aerospace is a leading developer of reusable rocket-powered vehicles and plans to provide a platform for civilian access to suborbital space via its partnership with Space Adventures, Ltd.

“Spaceport America has been an ideal launch facility for this kind of vehicle R&D testing activity,” said John Carmack, President and CTO of Armadillo Aerospace.

The vehicle housed a scientific payload as well.  The experiment was designed, built, tested, integrated, and performed by a team of undergraduate students at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the College of Engineering at Purdue University.  The experiment studied a liquid and gas flow process that is sensitive to the gravity and acceleration levels encountered during spaceflight.

The latest launch represents yet another successful experience at Spaceport America, the nation’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport. “We are extremely pleased to support Armadillo Aerospace as they conduct their high altitude vehicle flight testing, and look forward to hosting their NASA-funded suborbital research launches. Spaceport America continues to set the precedent for safe, efficient, effective service for commercial spaceflight customers,” said NMSA Executive Director Christine Anderson. This Armadillo Aerospace launch marks the thirteenth vertical launch test from the Spaceport America Vertical Launch Complex since 2006.

About Armadillo Aerospace

Founded in 2000, Armadillo Aerospace has an unequaled experience base with over 200 flight tests spread over a dozen different vehicles. The company has done work for NASA and the United States Air Force, and flown vehicles at every X-Prize Cup and Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge event, including those held in New Mexico from 2006 to 2008.

For more information, please visit www.armadilloaerospace.com.

About Space Adventures

Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the world’s first private space explorers, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft.

For more information, please visit www.spaceadventures.com.

About Spaceport America

Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. Phase One of the construction for the spaceport is expected to be complete in early 2012.  Phase Two of the construction and pre-operations activities will follow, including the development of a world-class Visitor Experience for students, tourists and space launch customers. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with entrepreneurial space leaders like Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and UP Aerospace, as well as established aerospace firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and MOOG-FTS to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on the promise of economic development to the people of New Mexico.

For more information, please visit: www.spaceportamerica.com

Space Adventures/Armadillo Press Contact: Stacey Tearne

p: 703-894-2192

e: stearne@spaceadventures.com

Spaceport America Press Contact: David Wilson

p: 575-640-8228

e: dwilson@zianet.com             

With a building as futuristic as the company itself, Virgin Galactic selected the Green Offices to house its Las Cruces headquarters. John Hummer, owner and Broker of Steinborn & Associates Real Estate , said Jacob Garland, associate broker with Steinborn, represented the project. The office will be located in the new Green Offices, 166 S. Roadrunner Parkway.

“Virgin began their office search back in May,” Garland said. “They looked at numerous locations throughout the city, and after much consideration, the team decided the Green Offices would be the best site for their Las Cruces headquarters.” Garland said construction has already commenced on the interior build-out, and the company’s goal is to occupy the space around the beginning 2012.

The office complex is the first privately funded professional office building built in New Mexico using LEED certification standards.

“Virgin Galactic is leasing approximately 2,000 square feet on the upper level,” Garland said. “They worked with a local architect to design the interior of the suite, which will be somewhat futuristic to stay with the Virgin Galactic theme; we are very excited to see the completed product.”

Virgin Galactic is an innovative company within Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Virgin Galactic is the world’s first space line giving individuals the groundbreaking opportunity to become one of the first ever non-professional astronauts.

Virgin Galactic will own and operate its privately built spaceships – WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo – from Spaceport America, which is located northwest of Las Cruces.

“Virgin Galactic’s commitment to this location is a positive example of Spaceport America’s promise of new growth and development in our community,” Hummer said.

“The entire team at Virgin Galactic has been excellent to work with throughout the entire process, they will be a great asset to the community,” Garland said.

Steinborn also represented the developer and owner of the Green Offices. The offices of the state-of-the-art, first of its kind, new professional office building consists of 18,000 square feet and was built to LEED certification standards. It is expected to receive Platinum LEED Certification – the highest LEED designation – upon final completion.

For more information about available space in the Green Offices, contact Garland at jacob@steinborn.com or 202-0429. To learn more about the Green Offices, visit www.greenofficeslc.com.

Sean Jodoin

Sean Jodoin, Virgin Galactic Supply Chain Manager, will be the featured speaker at the December meeting of the MVEDA Business on the Border Forum. The luncheon will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 from 11:30 AM until 1:00 PM at the Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces, 705 S. Telshor. The meeting will begin with a hot entree buffet followed by a brief update by MVEDA staff.

Sean focuses on developing a strategic supply chain plan from the ground up for Virgin Galactic. In addition, he is working on Spaceport America activities and with The Spaceship Company to deliver a technical supply chain for the spaceflight system.

Sean brings with him experience from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and KBR where he worked in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Procurement Manager. He served in Operation Enduring Freedom as an Air Force Combat Rescue aircrew member. He has earned an MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and holds CPIM and C.P.M. designations.

Luncheon cost is $20.00 per person, payable by cash, check or major credit card. Due to space limitations, reservations are required. Please confirm your attendance no later than Thursday, December 1^st by sending an email to rsvp@mveda.com or by calling the office at (575) 525-2852. The meeting is open to the public.

WRITER: Janet Perez, 575-646-4120, perezjm@nmsu.edu

CONTACT: Steve Hottman, 575-646-9202, shottman@psl.nmsu.edu

New Mexico State University is building a stellar international reputation for its work on unmanned aircraft systems, a fact reflected in the continually growing success of its annual UAS TAAC (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technical Analysis and Applications Center) Conference.

Entering its 13th year, the UAS TAAC Conference is hosted by NMSU’s Physical Science Laboratory and takes place Dec. 6-8 at the Tamaya Hyatt Regency in Santa Ana Pueblo. The Arrowhead Center, NMSU’s economic development hub, also plays a key role in the conference.

“The significance of a UAS conference in New Mexico continues to grow as we see development of the industry in the state,” said Steve Hottman, associate dean and deputy director for research at PSL. “Our conference efforts have not only attracted the interest and support of industry and government leaders, but also have acted as a great platform for drawing business to the state, as with the recent Vulture project PSL is working on with DARPA.”

On Sept. 30, NMSU announced that PSL had entered a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to assist in the development and lead the flight-testing of the Vulture unmanned aerial vehicle, the prime contractor of which is Boeing. The Vulture II will have a 400-foot wingspan and weigh between 5,000 and 7,000 pounds.

The idea for the Vulture, and NMSU’s involvement in the project, began a few years ago at a UAS TAAC Conference.

“This conference is one of the most respected networking venues in the UAS industry,” Hottman said. “It allows attendees access to leaders they would likely never get otherwise.”

When the first conference was held in 1998, it was one of only a handful in the nation that primarily focused on the civil use of unmanned aircraft systems. Since then, the conference has become a must-attend event for industry and government leaders. This year, representative s from the Department of Defense, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration, among others, will be on hand. Representatives from aviation user groups, universities and private industry also are expected to attend.

Topics for the conference include airspace access; the use of UAS by law enforcement, homeland security and the military; the availability of spectrum and bandwidth; and the challenges and opportunities facing unmanned aircraft systems. On Dec. 8, a session will be held at a classified location.

“In its 13th year, the TAAC Conference has proven itself to be recession proof,” Hottman said. “In fact, registration for the conference is now closed because we have reached maximum capacity.”

NMSU’s UAS TAAC program has risen to the top of the UAS field through its testing of various UAS platforms. It also has produced a certification roadmap that is serving as a framework for UAS certification. This work has been accomplished largely through the fact that NMSU is the only FAA-authorized UAS Flight Test Center in the United States, which allows UAS operations in the National Airspace System or civilian airspace. Under the FAA agreement, the Flight Test Center can operate flights across more than 15,000 square miles of airspace in southwestern New Mexico. The center’s facilities include a 15,000-square-foot hangar at the Las Cruces International Airport that is dedicated exclusively to UAS operations, as well as offices and technical support on the NMSU campus.

On the economic development front, the Arrowhead Center is creating opportunities for aerospace businesses in southern New Mexico and beyond, partly in tandem with Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences.

For more information on the conference, log onto http://taac.psl.nmsu.edu.

By Todd G. Dickson

When Richard Branson dropped over the edge of the glass-walled balcony of the terminal hangar at Spaceport America Monday, Oct. 17, the danger was more for show to the 800 gathered there for a ceremonial dedication of the 110,152-square-foot facility. But after the champagne and speeches, Branson spent much of his time talking more to the press than to the 150 future passengers, to quell reports of competitors and test flight progress.

Emerging from the rust-colored curving steel doors from the hangar’s south end, Branson was fielding questions from a British journalist. Branson was critical of a report about a competitor – XCOR Aerospace, which is developing a suborbital spacecraft that will take a pilot and a passenger into suborbital space for about $100,000, starting in 2014, flying out from the island of Curacao off the coast of Venezuela.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceliner promises to take six passengers to suborbital space for $200,000 a flight from Spaceport America, 45 miles north of Las Cruces. “We’re the only one with a system that has actually gone to space, and we’re the only one with a spaceport facility like this,” Branson said. “People need to think about that before they pay $100,000 to go to South America.”

The reporters – as well as the other journalists and some of the future passengers – tried to pin Branson down on when he would begin flying out of Spaceport America.

The Virgin Galactic system launches its spaceship from midair using a hybrid rocket engine. The jet-powered mothership carrying the spaceship was as much the star at Monday’s event as Branson, but it didn’t perform a rumored glide test to the two-mile-long runway at Spaceport America. The spaceship has only performed glide flights as the new, larger hybrid engines are still being tested.

When asked about when the craft would be flying into space, Branson was only willing to say next year for the first rocket powered flight tests, but wouldn’t say exactly when he would begin flying passengers to achieve the first year goal of taking 500 people to space the first year of operations. Branson may have been hedging because the SpaceShipTwo almost didn’t make the ceremony.

In its 16th glide flight Sept. 29, SpaceShipTwo carried a three-person crew – two pilots and a flight test engineer – and made a clean release from WhiteKnightTwo at high altitude. But instead of taking its usual smooth glide flight, it “dropped like a rock and went straight down,” according to one observer. Springing into action, the crew deployed the ship’s novel feather re-entry system and was able to regain stability to make a safe landing after seven minutes, four minutes sooner than it should have landed. It is the first report of a flight “anomaly” for the liner-sized version of the system that made the first privately developed back-to-back spaceflights in 2004.

George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive officer and president, told Space.com that this is what flight testing is for and that Scaled Composites – which is creating the spaceliner in Mojave, Calif. – is reviewing the data to find out what happened.

That illustrates why Branson wouldn’t be more firm on the start date for regular flights. Branson told reporters that he couldn’t afford even the marginal failure rate of NASA space flight experience. In essence, Branson plans to conduct many test flights before those passengers are taken to space, with him and his family being the first passengers.

For the British billionaire, creating the spaceliner fleet is “the biggest dream of my lifetime” – and that’s saying something for a man who built an international business venture empire from the humble beginnings of a record store. “I still get goose bumps every time I think that I’m doing this,” Branson said.

Called “Keys to a New Dawn,” the terminal hangar dedication signals that construction is nearly finished on the $32.5 million building, which is designed by URS/Foster + Partners to both be modern and blend in with the surrounding desert. It is LEED certified Gold for its environmental sensitivities and energy efficiencies. Soon, Virgin Galactic designers and interior architects will begin working on making the insides of the hangar as otherworldly and up-scaled as the exterior.

For Virgin’s future passengers, it was a day to stare at the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo and imagine what that one-hour trip into suborbital space will be like.

One of the newer passengers to put down a deposit on the $200,000 flight is Chandra Jessee of New York, who said she has become a believer that these trips into the upper edge of the planet’s atmosphere will make people more sensitive to the world they live in. “I think it (spaceflight access) can bring the world together,” she said. As she gazed upon the spaceliner and recalled its slow, circling flights overhead earlier, Jessee was clearly taken with the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. “It’s stunningly beautiful,” she said.