Posts Tagged ‘Governor Bill Richardson’

Article courtesy of The Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

With construction under way on the 110,152-square-foot Terminal Hangar Facility at Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s new space liner took to the skies for the first time carrying its rocket spaceship. On Monday, March 22, Virgin Galactic announced that its commercial manned spaceship, VSS Enterprise, successfully completed its first “captive carry” test flight.

Virgin Galactic’s system for taking passengers to suborbital space will have the double-hulled carrier jet powered aircraft – called the mother ship or “Eve” – carry the rocket portion up to 52,000 feet, where it will be released. The six-passenger spacecraft will then ignite its hybrid rocket engine to bolt to an elevation of 65 miles within 60 seconds.

Monday’s flight simply had the mother ship carry the rocket payload, but flew to an elevation of 45,000 feet during a flight that lasted nearly three hours. The elevation and duration of the first “mated” flight illustrated the confidence that Virgin Galactic has in the aircraft, said New Mexico Spaceport Authority Executive Director Steve Landeene during a presentation Tuesday, March 22, to the High Tech Consortium of Southern New Mexico.

Both vehicles are being developed for English billionaire Richard Branson by Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. Founded by Burt Rutan, the company came up with a smaller version of the system to claim the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE in 2004 as the world’s first privately developed manned spacecraft to reach suborbital space. Branson bought the rights for the technology and is working with Scaled Composites to create a fleet of space liners for Virgin Galactic, which will take passengers to suborbital space for $250,000 a flight by 2011, should future testing go well.

Virgin Galactic will be the anchor tenant at Spaceport America, and the Terminal Hangar Facility is being built for its operations. Landeene said the foundation for the facility’s steel towers has been laid and the building is on track to be turned over to Virgin Galactic by early 2011.

Meanwhile, Landeene said work continues to progress rapidly on the 10,000 foot runway, which will primarily be used for the Virgin Galactic take-offs and landings. But the sturdy asphalt and concrete runway can handle any kind of aircraft and Landeene said he can foresee its use for specially modified 727s to take people on zero-gravity simulated flights.

Landeene also noted progress on other work at the $198 million spaceport in the desert between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences, including the spaceport’s fuel storage facility, wastewater treatment system, water access and other utilities, such as electricity. Though the spaceport is tapping traditional electricity, Landeene said the goal is to generate all of the spaceport’s energy needs at the site through renewable energy technologies.

With 12 of the 14 major project contracts awarded, “we are about a year away from having a full spaceport ready for business,” he said. All of those contracts have gone to New Mexico companies, though Landeene acknowledged the criticism that many of the jobs have gone to Albuquerque- based companies. Never the less, Landeene said the work done to date has created more than 600 jobs in the area, which he said is buoying local businesses and government through the lean economy. He estimated that the spaceport activity has already brought New Mexico more than $18 million in revenue that it wouldn’t have had without the project. “The return on investment is really quite tremendous,” he said.

The spaceport will continue to host other customers, such as UP Aerospace, which has conducted a number of launches with its low-cost sounding rocket, including research and development tests for Lockheed Martin and MOOG FTS. Landeene said he expects to soon be making other announcements about significant private space companies coming to Spaceport America.

With NASA rethinking its mission, private companies providing affordable access to space will become more significant partners in the future, Landeene said. NASA recently announced it intends to spend $75 million on development of suborbital vehicles.

It also helped that the Legislature passed and Governor Bill Richardson signed into law informed consent legislation, which defines the passengers as participants who know they are taking a risk in these private space flights. Landeene said the law doesn’t eliminate liability to the companies for negligence or damage to other property, but it does make doing business in New Mexico more attractive in the area of private spaceflight.

State Senator Steve Fischmann agreed with Landeene that many northern lawmakers have a “jaundiced view” of the spaceport until they learn more about research-and-development potential that’s possible along with the space tourism.

Landeene admitted some won’t be able to get behind the spaceport until they’ve seen it work and produce more local activity. He said his office continues to investigate other opportunities for providing more “supply chain” business to the local area, as well as packaging tourist experiences. The spaceport’s construction, however, is the primary task of his office, he noted.

On Monday, January 25, Governor Bill Richardson unveiled an interconnected system that will eventually link 33 sites around the state to Encanto, New Mexico’s Supercomputer.  Encanto is the fastest public supercomputer in the world. The Supercomputer, which is housed at Intel in Rio Rancho, can perform 172 trillion calculations per second.

The “Connect New Mexico” event connected all eight new gateway sites into the Supercomputer using its new teleconferencing capability. The sites are:

• The University of New Mexico
• New Mexico State University
• Eastern New Mexico
• Western New Mexico University
• New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
• Santa Fe Community College
• San Juan College
• The State Capitol

These sites will be utilized by the universities and local businesses that need high performance computing for design and modeling purposes. The Supercomputer can be used for research, educational activities, training, and business modeling in the areas of energy, environment, digital film, aerospace, and biotechnology, among others.

The founding institutions for the New Mexico Computing Applications Center, which runs the Supercomputer, are UNM, NMSU, New Mexico Tech, and Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

For more information about the event and future Supercomputer gateways, see the Governor’s newsroom and the NMSU News Center.

Release Courtesy of the Governor’s Office

January 8, 2010
Alarie Ray-Garcia (505) 476-2248

SANTA FE- Governor Bill Richardson today announced Johnson Plate and Tower will build a wind tower manufacturing facility in Santa Teresa. The facility is expected to create dozens of construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs.

“I am pleased that Johnson Plate and Tower chose New Mexico to build its new wind tower manufacturing plant and plans to create 150 new jobs in our state,” Governor Richardson said. “This announcement shows that our aggressive efforts to create jobs, especially during this global recession, are paying off. Manufacturing of green technology is an important component of building a green jobs economy here in New Mexico.”

Today President Obama announced that Johnson Plate and Tower is one 183 projects that will share $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy manufacturing projects across the United States. Johnson Plate and Tower was awarded $2,385,000 in credits for its Santa Teresa facility.

Johnson Plate and Tower will build its more than 84,000 square-foot manufacturing facility on 22 acres in the Verde Logistics Park. The company expects to employ 40-50 people during the construction phase and then move to a full time operation employing 150 people in the manufacturing of wind towers for wind farms across the country.

“We are excited that Johnson Plate and Tower chose to locate in our growing industrial border-plex region here in New Mexico,” Economic Secretary Fred Mondragon said. “I want to commend Dona Ana County for the passage of the Local Economic Development Act that helped make this project possible.”

Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific’s Director Public Affairs, Arizona & New Mexico Corporate Relations, sponsored a breakfast for MVEDA Partners and updated them on the status of the new terminal planned for Strauss (Santa Teresa), New Mexico. The $150M terminal expansion was announced by Union Pacific CEO Jim Young and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in October, 2006.

Zoe Richmond

Richmond’s presentation noted that Union Pacific has invested more that $1 billion in projects along the Sunset Corridor which runs from Los Angeles through El Paso. She pointed out that Union Pacific now owns 2,219 acres of land surrounding the Strauss terminal location. The land was acquired by trading an $11 million ranch in central New Mexico to the State Land Office. The timeline for the start of construction has been delayed due to the economic downturn.

Article Courtesy of The Las Cruces Bulletin

The High Tech Consortium of Southern New Mexico, a grassroots organization that fosters the retention and growth of technology and its associated industries, will host its third annual Digital Media Summit from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, at the Las Cruces City Council Chambers, 200 N. Church St.

The summit will provide an overview of current and emerging digital media applications, needs and opportunities in education, film, government and industry, said HTC President Gary Gomes.

“We are fortunate to have an all-star roster of panelists,” he said. “This is an important event in helping foster a vibrant digital media industry sector in our local area.”

Panel discussions will feature representatives from Comcast Cable Corp., Dona Ana Community College, Digital Solutions, IBM, Las Cruces Public Schools, New Mexico State University, Sony Pictures Imageworks and SoundView Networks.

The program will provide the general public as well as business and civic leaders’ insight into how digital media can solve real world problems and improve the economics and quality of life in southern New Mexico.

Among the topics of discussion will be how to build New Mexico-based media production companies and facilities and education and workforce development.

The summit will also provide a venue for media industry professionals and students to network with your peers and help formulate a “southern New Mexico vision” to present at the statewide New Mexico Media Industries Strategy Project (MISP) conference in January.

MISP is a public-private partnership formed to guide the state’s media industries development over the short, intermediate and long term. Gov. Bill Richardson has said creating a vibrant digital media industry is a high priority for his administration and for the state.

“The Preliminary Strategic Plan for the Media Industries Strategy Project represents a bold step forward to establish New Mexico as a leading center for media arts and sciences,” Richardson said in a statement. “This plan – and its rapid and effective implementation – is a priority for my administration and New Mexico’s economic development strategy.”

The digital media summit in Las Cruces is being sponsored by HTC as a public service and attendance is free. For more information or to RSVP, send email to info@htcnm.com or call (575) 524-4659.