Posts Tagged ‘Hatch’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Sun-News

By Diana M. Alba

LAS CRUCES – NASA‘s recently announced plan to buy flights from two companies that will launch from Spaceport America gives the $209 million project a shot in the arm, as the facility preps for a ceremonial dedication of its largest building on Monday and the overall project inches closer to completion, supporters said last week.

NASA’s involvement adds credibility and boosts the viability of the spaceport, said state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, who chairs the state oversight panel for the project. “We’re not just depending on Virgin Galactic,” she said of the spaceport’s future. “I think it’s something that we’d been hoping would happen.”

NASA booked at least one suborbital flight – with the option for buying two more – from Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company and the main Spaceport America tenant, the company said last week. And UP Aerospace Inc., a Denver-based commercial launch company, announced about a week ago that NASA awarded it a contract to launch payloads on two rocket flights, with the option for six additional flights.

“There’s some serendipity happening, where some of these research companies are finding the use of the Virgin system is a good way to test things and is certainly cheaper than launching rockets into orbit,” said Rick Holdridge of Deming, chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. “There’s a market Virgin Galactic never really thought much of, but it’s starting to grow rapidly.”

Also, Virgin Galactic – a British company headed by billionaire Richard Branson – said last week it has collected $58 million in deposits from 455 would-be tourists who’ll launch to suborbital space from the spaceport, possibly starting in 2013, officials said.

‘Almost an icon’

About 500 people – invited guests only – are expected to attend a Virgin Galactic-hosted event Monday at the spaceport to christen the $32.5-million terminal-hangar facility, a sting ray-looking structure often depicted in spaceport images.  Gov. Susana Martinez, Congressman Steve Pearce and NASA representatives are expected to attend the ceremony, called the “Keys to a New Dawn.”

Monday’s event is significant because the terminal-hangar is “almost an icon” that signifies a major shift in the space industry, said New Mexico Spaceport Authority Executive Director Christine Anderson. “You can say it’s just a building, but it’s really ushering in a new era,” said Anderson, who’s in charge of the state-owned spaceport. “And it’s happening right here in New Mexico.”

Still, spaceport opponents criticize the project, saying that they doubt it will be the economic engine backers claim and that it was a poor use of state Legislature funds. Others take aim at two sales taxes passed by voters in Dona Ana and Sierra counties that are helping to pay for spaceport construction.

Dona Ana County Commissioner Karen Perez said she remains skeptical about the spaceport and how many jobs it will create. Plus, she’s concerned there’s not yet a route paved for easier access to the spaceport from the south. “There’s nothing in the project that has changed substantially,” she said. “It’s a project we’re paying for and we’re still not benefiting from it.”

Not finished

The terminal-hangar construction, originally slated for completion in December 2010, was plagued by a series of problems, ranging from the lack of a permanent power supply to the remoteness of the southeastern Sierra County site to sluggish payments by the state to contractors. Despite Monday’s ceremony, the building isn’t ready for Virgin Galactic to take occupancy. Construction is expected to wrap up in late November, officials said. And a certificate of occupancy must be issued, at which point Virgin Galactic will take over and begin what could be a year of work further outfitting the building.

Overall, the first phase of construction – the terminal-hangar, an operations building, a 10,000-foot runway, three vertical launch pads, the paving of a northern road to the facility, water and wastewater systems and a power line to the site – is about 93 percent finished, Anderson said Friday.  Construction on the dome-shaped operations building, which will house security, EMS, firefighters, grounds keeping, the spaceport’s technical operations manager and the Spaceport Authority offices, likely will conclude in January or February 2012, according to Anderson.

The terminal-hangar on Monday will be dubbed the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space Building,” Holdridge said.

The installation of a power line to the spaceport site had potential to further stall the project’s first phase, considering a permanent electricity source is needed before the state can sign off on spaceport contractors’ work. But spaceport officials said the line is nearing completion. The power line had been installed and set to go online last week, when a company installing telecommunications accidentally cut through it. It could be repaired as early as next week, Anderson said.

State Rep. Andy Nunez, I-Hatch, a spaceport supporter, visited the site in August with a panel of lawmakers, and expressed concern construction wasn’t further along. “I hope they’ll be doing some catch-up,” he said. “I’d love to see that thing dedicated.”

The Spaceport Authority has begun Phase 2 of the project, which includes the visitors’ centers and a paved southern road to Spaceport America, Anderson said.

Lease payments

After the formal takeover, Virgin Galactic will begin paying $1 million a year in lease payments for use of the facility, Holdridge said. The payments would be prorated because its tenant status would start in the middle of the fiscal year.

“It’s going to be nice to see that major milestone take place with the dedication and the fact Virgin Galactic is going to be taking over responsibility for the facility,” said Jim Hayhoe, president of Spaceport America Consultants, a local company. “It’s a major milestone and it also starts some significant cash flow for the state to start getting some money back.”

Virgin Galactic has begun relocating staff to the Las Cruces area in preparation for the start of its space tourism flights, officials said.

Space vehicles

The development of Virgin Galactic’s two-vehicle system by the firm Scaled Composites continues at Mojave, Calif. In all, WhiteKnightTwo, the plane that will carry a spaceship aloft for a mid-air launch, had completed 73 flights through Sept. 29, according to a Scaled Composites flight log. Meanwhile, SpaceShipTwo had been dropped from the plane 16 times. It lands as a glider. The rocket motor that will power the spaceship to suborbital space after detaching from the plane is currently in testing, also at Mojave.

Symposium week

Also this week, industry officials, government officials and researchers will meet Tuesday to Thursday for the International Symposium for Personal Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces. A tour of Spaceport America is slated for participants on Friday. Holdridge said the symposium is a chance to showcase the spaceport. “Are there ways we can get more customers to the spaceport?” he said. “I’d love to see us find some new customers.”

Article courtesy of greentechmedia.com

By Eric Wesoff

A 5-megawatt project in the world of photovoltaics doesn’t always warrant news coverage.

But a 5-megawatt project in concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) is a big deal and we’ve learned of an under-the-radar deployment that is currently online and producing power.

The Hatch, NM CPV project would seem to hold title as the largest CPV system in North America. Amonix is the supplier of the CPV equipment.

I spoke with Jim Hayhoe, an economic consultant to the Village of Hatch and he confirmed that the project is indeed online. According to Hayhoe, the project came online on July 2 with 2.7 megawatts and as of a week ago was generating 4.1 megawatts. Construction for the project started in mid-January and was completed on schedule, according to Hayhoe.

The Hatch CPV project employs Amonix CPV systems, although Amonix isn’t commenting publicly, and sits on 39 acres in New Mexico’s Hatch Industrial Park, 7 miles west of the Village of Hatch, New Mexico. The 5-megawatt system uses 81 Amonix trackers and is being built and operated by NextEra Energy Resources, a unit of NextEra Energy.

Each of the Amonix modules puts out about 60 kilowatts.

Blattner Energy of Albuquerque, NM is the EPC and construction contractor for the solar project. The project employed approximately 60 people during the construction phase. We’ve contacted Blattner for comment.

Electricity generated from the projects will be sold to El Paso Electric under a Purchase Power Agreement (PPA) to help meet New Mexico’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard.

The project was funded by Industrial Revenue Bonds.

GTM Research has written the definitive analysis of the CPV market — here’s a link to the report. The CPV Ecosystem chart shown below is excerpted from that report.

You can visit the working CPV site and attend The Hatch Chile Festival scheduled for Labor Day. Hatch lays claim as the home of the world’s best chili pepper and can now add home to the largest CPV project. At least until the 30 megawatt Alamosa project comes online.

Las Cruces Bulletin photo by Chris Mortensen

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

Las Cruces Public Schools is reporting that all 112 freshmen in its early college high school will be returning to begin classes in its new building on the New Mexico State University campus.

A community group of educators and business leaders called The Bridge pushed for the creation of an early college high school as a national best practice for academically focused students to take classes at a university or college campus environment. Early college high schools enjoy a 95 percent graduation rate, nationally.

LCPS opened the new school last July before construction began on its building at NMSU’s Arrowhead Center. Dona Ana Community College provided classroom space for the first group of students.

The Arrowhead Park Early College High School (APECHS) prepares students to graduate with both a high school diploma and a two year college degree in four years. APECHS students completed their first college-level dual credit course, ninth- and 10th-grade honors English classes and posted district-leading attendance rates. “I like that we’re a small community and we all know each other,” said student Marina Calderon. “We’re like a big family. Here we all communicate with each other, and we’re all under four teachers. Our school motto is ‘We are the Trailblazers.’ So without the teachers taking that risk for the first-year students, we wouldn’t be anything.”

Four of its initial 116 students left the school because of moves or transfers. Most APECHS students are the first in their family to attend a college class and those “at risk” for not completing high school nor pursuing a college degree. Their average grade point average is 3.167. Almost one-third of the students had higher than a 3.5 GPA, and almost two-thirds held higher than a 3.0.

In a comprehensive high school, the freshman year is when almost half of the total dropouts in a class occur. Based on the most recent countywide dropout rate of 49 percent, statistically 27 of these students should have dropped out in a traditional environment.

The new $18 million APECHS campus reflects a 16 percent savings on cost per student, or $42 million in savings to the district. The cost per square foot of the 64,260-square-foot campus is half that of the new $100 million Centennial High School, which is also under construction.

“This is the way we need to think about education for the future of our city, our county, and our state,” said LCPS Superintendent Stan Rounds. “The early college high school model is extremely effective in other parts of the country. In fact, 10 percent of incoming juniors at UTEP are graduates from El Paso’s five early college high schools.”

APECHS is the first early college high school in New Mexico. “We are so proud of the students and staff of this school,” said Kari Mitchell, one of the founders of The Bridge and its current board vice president. “They’ve done an incredible job this year, and we are looking forward to having these well prepared, highly motivated students become part of our county’s future workforce.”

APECHS is a collaborative effort between LCPS, DACC and NMSU.

“These students really rose to the challenge of excelling in their first college-level course this year,” said DACC President Margie Huerta. “They are going to lead the way for the rest of the state. They are proving how important it is that we continue to offer dual credit courses for high school students to give them a real jump start into their college education.”

Discussions are currently under way for more early college high schools in the Las Cruces, Gadsden, and Hatch districts. There could be as many as four countywide opened over the next five years.

NMSU photo

Release courtesy of NMSU News Center

WRITER: Dennis Zaklan, 575-646-9417, dzaklan@psl.nmsu.edu

From May 2-4, New Mexico State University’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Test Center supported AAI Corporation’s Shadow 200 Tactical UAS in conducting flights over the skies of Hatch, N.M. These were four-dimensional flight tests in support of efforts by the Federal Aviation Administration Tech Center to further UAS flights in the National Airspace System.

NMSU’s UAS FTC is the only FAA-approved FTC in the nation. The FAA and NMSU developed the center to provide a place for manufacturers, government agencies and other developers or operators to safely test fly, demonstrate and train their UAS.

During these flight tests, the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Program Office had several representatives on-site to observe and review the NMSU procedures and view the chase plane operations to assist them with moving forward on developing safe procedures that will enable UAS more access to the NAS in the future. The chase plane provides the UAS pilot-in-command with eyes in the sky, enabling the UAS to see and avoid other aircraft during flight away from the launch/recover location.

Three specific types of flights were reflected. The first was the checkout flight for the system to ensure the entire system was functioning properly before any test flights could occur. The second type was performing the link-up between the chase plane and the unmanned aircraft. The actual link-up went extremely well because of the outstanding procedures discussed by the UAS FTC operations staff and the AAI flight team. All parties were amazed at how smoothly it went, which is a tribute to very well developed procedures and the aviation experience on both teams. The two teams meshed very well, and this enabled the 4DT test flights and demonstration to be performed safely within the NAS.

The 4DT test and demonstration flights are part of a step-by-step process to develop and validate that UAS’ will be able to fly with manned aircraft in the future and have the ability to perform avoidance maneuvers for safety of flight. These tests being performed by the AAI Shadow TUAV, with software developed by General Electric Company on board the UA and in the ground control station, proved that the UA could perform maneuvers when receiving input from another source. The 4DT demonstration was conducted shortly after noon on May 4, with several of the flight cards that had been flown earlier as part of the testing. Representatives from the FAA Tech Center, the UAPO and Hatch Mayor Judd Nordyke viewed the demonstration.

The test flights proved the viability of the UAS FTC with AAI Corporation, one of the largest UAS manufacturers in the U.S. Discussions are ongoing to further the relationship and perform additional UAS flights in the UAS FTC’s 15,000 square miles of FAA-approved airspace.

Space Week in New Mexico

Release courtesy of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium

New Mexico Space Grant Consortium will host the fifth annual FREE ISPCS Public Forum (previously named the Leonard R. Sugerman Public Forum) on Tuesday, October 19^th, 1:30-3:00 at the Pan American Center on the campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.   Discover how the future of commercial spaceflight will impact our community.  The mayor of Titusville Florida will present on what happened when NASA came to town.  Local mayors will discuss what preparations they are making as Spaceport America becomes operational. Speakers include:

• John Hummer, moderator, CCIM, Owner/Broker, Steinborn TCN Commercial Real Estate
• Mayor Tulley from Titusville Florida
• Las Cruces Mayor Miyagishima
• Truth or Consequences Mayor Montgomery
• Hatch Mayor Nordyke

You are welcome to also attend the public forum 12:00 – 1:15 focused for university students and faculty.  Speakers include:

• Pat Hynes, New Mexico Space Grant Consortium Director
• Clay Anderson, NASA Astronaut, STS-117, STS-131, ISS
• George Whitesides, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Galactic
• Aaron Prescott, Commercial Division Director, Spaceport America
• Mark Severance, International Space Station Laboratory, Education Projects Manager
• Doug Weathers, NMSU student, Student Launch Program
• Ivan Ferrell, NMSU student, Microgravity Program
• Selene Virk, NMSU student, Transcriptomic Profile of the Inner Ear Vestibular Organs

Come join us as we discuss preparing for this exciting industry in southern New Mexico!

On Wednesday and Thursday, October 20-21 the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight will be held at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.  For more information or to register for the symposium go to http://www.ispcs.com