Posts Tagged ‘Todd G. Dickson’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin, by Todd G. Dickson

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.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

State Higher Education Secretary Jose Garcia and Public Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera say they intend to make the public schools and higher education work together to provide a better trained work force.

Speaking before the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) Tuesday, Jan. 3, Garcia and Skandera said they also will make the educational system more accountable. Their appearance in Las Cruces was followed up by Gov. Susana Martinez meeting with a large group of regents, governing board members and post-secondary institution presidents in Socorro to discuss the state’s new higher education funding formula.

The new formula will reward New Mexico’s higher learning institutions based on outcome measures that reflect student achievement and preparedness for New Mexico’s work force, as opposed to basing the allocation of funding on measurements like the size (square footage) of each institution. Also, the current formula funds colleges and universities based on courses and degree programs started. The new formula would be based on courses and degree programs completed.

Garcia said this is about more than making better use of the state’s support of higher education. The idea is to put the money into where there are gaps, especially in skill sets needed in high-tech professions.

At the MVEDA luncheon, Garcia noted that Intel decided to expand its Arizona operations, but not its plant in Rio Rancho. Yet, New Mexico spends more per graduate than Arizona, he said. Garcia said he took it as signal that New Mexico is not producing the kind of work force that is needed for the United States to be competitive globally.

“The central goal of New Mexico’s higher education institutions should be to graduate the students New Mexico’s economy will depend on for decades,” Martinez said. “In an increasingly competitive global economy, this formula will help us deliver the graduates we need for the jobs of tomorrow, and it serves to intently focus our attention on the achievement of our students.”

Under the formula, institutions would receive funding for graduating students in “STEHM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Health Care and Mathematics) fields. A recent study disclosed that New Mexico’s economy will require nearly 50,000 employees with STEHM degrees by 2018 and nearly 95 percent of those jobs will require post-secondary education. “For the first time in the history of New Mexico, the younger generation is less educated than the generations before,” Garcia said. “This new formula is our opportunity to make sure today’s students are tomorrow’s successful employees.”

Meanwhile, Skandera said the schools will be changing, too, with a focus on making graduates better prepared for the work force or higher education once they complete school. Skandera said the schools will be more realistically assessed than the guaranteed failure rates offered by No Child Left Behind standards, which she said has only resulted in schools putting resources into helping borderline students rather than helping struggling students.

“Education is about setting up our kids for success,” Skandera said. “Let’s honor the successes we see and work on the areas we need to.”

At the MVEDA luncheon, a local success story was also highlighted. The Arrowhead Park Early College High School (APECHS) on the New Mexico State University campus will get a boost from a $345,090 W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant for the public-private workforce development advocate. The school, created by a school-business partnership called the Bridge of Southern New Mexico gives students the chance to learn in a higher education environment and earn college credits.

APECHS can tout that none of its students have dropped out, said Tracey Bryan, president and CEO of The Bridge. She said the cooperative efforts between the public schools, higher education and the business community is what spurred Kellogg to give the significant grant.

Distribution of the grant money includes $45,000 to NMSU’s Enlace Program that helps minority students succeed in higher education, $45,000 to NMSU and the University of New Mexico education research centers, $37,090 to the Arrowhead Center where the school is housed and $10,000 to the Service Learning Program at the NMSU College of Education. But the bulk of the Kellogg grant will be used to increase the student capacity at APECHS and to begin work on setting up four more early college high schools in Doña Ana County, according to the grant announcement.

Bryan said the Kellogg grant is a significant award, but The Bridge also has been getting grants from other private foundations and local businesses to help the APECHS effort. Through APECHS and other efforts, Las Cruces Public Schools is seeing good progress on reducing its dropout rate overall, Bryan said, “and the sky’s the limit” for future progress.

Skandera touted APECHS as an example of how to improve schools. “We didn’t point fingers in Las Cruces,” she said. “We sat down and said how do we get there, and we partnered.”

Article Courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

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.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

On the eve of a week of activities related to new space entrepreneurs, Spaceport America’s two primary customers – Virgin Galactic and UP Aerospace – have made major announcements.

UP Aerospace, the company that has conducted a number of traditional sounding rocket launches from the spaceport 45 miles north of Las Cruces, announced this week that it will conduct up to nine new missions from Spaceport America in 2012 and 2013.

The launches will be for NASA and the Department of Defense. If all the planning launches from contracts are conducted, they will be twice the number of missions UP Aerospace has flown from Spaceport America since 2006.

“Spaceport America has an established history with UP Aerospace, and we congratulate this forward-thinking company on its new launch contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense,” said New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) Executive Director Christine Anderson. “UP Aerospace has been launching here since 2006 and we are looking forward to hosting UP Aerospace and other commercial space launch providers as they continue to meet the needs of our nation.”

NASA’s Office of Chief Technologist Launch Opportunities Program awarded UP Aerospace a contract to integrate technology payloads and launch them into space on up to eight flights using its SpaceLoft rocket. This contract reserves two launches with options on purchasing up to six additional flights in 2012 and 2013.

The first launch for NASA is still in the planning phase, but is expected in the first quarter of 2012, according to a news release from NMSA. The second contract was issued by the Defense Department’s Operationally Responsive Space Office, and will be a suborbital flight also planned for the first quarter of 2012.

“We have a great relationship with Spaceport America,” said UP Aerospace President Jerry Larson. “We are excited to see business ramping up for our SpaceLoft launch vehicles, and look forward to meeting the needs of our customers.”

UP Aerospace has provided launch services for the Defense Department previously, although this will be the company’s first fully dedicated launch for the military. UP Aerospace has teamed with Schafer Corporation of Albuquerque to provide comprehensive launch and payload integration services for the NASA launches.

At Spaceport America, UP Aerospace has conducted launches test rocket vehicle or booster concepts for companies that do business with the Defense Department.

Virgin Galactic gets the keys

On Monday, Oct. 17, which is the start of Space Week in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic will host a hangar dedication ceremony at Spaceport America, where work on its Terminal Hangar Facility is nearly completed where Virgin will be housing its fleet of spaceliners. Virgin Galactic is calling the hangar dedication ceremony “Keys to a New Dawn.”

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has a new Vice President of Operations Michael Moses, a former NASA executive. Moses will oversee the planning and execution of all operations of the company’s commercial suborbital spaceflight program.

“Following a distinguished career in NASA’s recently retired Space Shuttle Program, Moses brings to Virgin Galactic a proven record of safe, successful and secure human spaceflight missions, spaceport operations, and human spaceflight program leadership,” Virgin Galactic stated in its announcement. “He served at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the Launch Integration Manager from 2008 until the landing of the final Shuttle mission in July 2011. He was responsible for supervising all Space Shuttle processing activities from landing through launch, and for reviewing major milestones including final readiness for flight.”

Moses also served as chair of the Mission Management Team, providing ultimate launch decision authority for the final 12 missions of the Space Shuttle Program, directly overseeing the safe and successful flights of 75 astronauts. According to Virgin Galactic, Moses will develop and lead the team responsible for its spaceship operations and logistics, flight crew operations, customer training and spaceport ground operations, with overall operational safety and risk management as the primary focus.

“Bringing Mike in to lead the team represents a significant investment in our commitment to operational safety and success as we prepare to launch commercial operations,” said Virgin Galactic President and CEO George Whitesides. “His experience and track record in all facets of spaceflight operations are truly unique. His forward-thinking perspective to bring the hard-won lessons of human spaceflight into our operations will benefit us tremendously.”

Prior to his most recent NASA role, Moses served as a flight director at the NASA Johnson Space Center, where he led teams of flight controllers in the planning, training and execution of all aspects of space shuttle missions. Moses also has more than 10 years experience as a flight controller in the Shuttle Propulsion and Electrical Systems Groups.

“I am extremely excited to be joining Virgin Galactic at this time, helping to forge the foundations that will enable routine commercial suborbital spaceflights,” Moses said. “Virgin Galactic will expand the legacy of human spaceflight beyond traditional government programs into the world’s first privately funded commercial spaceline.”

Moses holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Purdue University, a master’s degree in space sciences from Florida Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University. He is a two-time recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal as well as other NASA commendations and awards.

Carolyn Wincer, who is Virgin Galactic’s head of travel and tourism, recently said the company will soon be opening an office in Las Cruces. Wincer said more than 70 flight tests have made of Virgin’s system that launches a six passenger rocket from mid-air to reach 70miles above the Earth’s surface.

Some 500 experienced test pilots have applied to fly for Virgin Galactic, according to Wincer. Meanwhile, more than 500 potential passengers have made down payments for the $200,000 tickets, totaling close to $60 million in deposits. Virgin Galactic also will host the first-ever “Industry Day” for potential suppliers and partners at Spaceport America on Tuesday, Oct. 18. The invitation-only event is designed to educate potential companies on the type of goods and services that will be needed as commercial space travel becomes a reality at Spaceport America.

“Virgin Galactic and (its sister) The Spaceship Company are looking to create relationships with local, regional and global suppliers to support their operations at Spaceport America,” Anderson said. “The organizers of this event have stated their intention to hire locally as much as possible, which is good news for New Mexico companies.”

The daylong event will include presentations by Whitesides, Anderson and New Mexico Department of Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela. Attendees will have an opportunity to see the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicles in their new home at the spaceport.

Space gathering an international event

After the Virgin Galactic event, the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) begins at New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Spring Road.

A Growing Community Partnership Luncheon will be held Tuesday, Oct. 18, at the Commercial Space Exhibit Hall inside the museum. The $50 luncheon includes a talk by Allan Lockheed, son of the aviation pioneer who created what is now Lockheed Martin. Lockheed will talk about how the space industry will coalesce around Spaceport America – an industry that is currently supported by $60 billion just in government spending.

More than 500 people – mostly key movers in the private space industry – are expected to attend ISPCS Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 19-20. Panel discussion will cover a host of topics, including creating the supply chain support.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

Part of the state’s spaceport deal with Virgin Galactic is that the company set up its headquarters in New Mexico, and Las Cruces appears to be that place.

Carolyn Wincer, Virgin Galactic’s head of travel and tourism, told the City Council Monday, Oct. 3, that the company will soon be opening an office in Las Cruces as the base of its operations in New Mexico.  A location has been picked, but Virgin isn’t releasing it yet.

Virgin is ramping up its preparations for when the company begins flying tourists into suborbital space 70 miles above Earth’s surface, perhaps even as soon as next year. The company is currently testing the carrier flyer and spaceship, which is launched in mid-air.

Wincer said more than 70 flight tests have made of Virgin’s first spaceliner, including 16 solo glide flights of SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger version of the two-seater that was the first piloted rocket vehicle to reach suborbital space in 2004. The hybrid rocket engine that will be propelling the passengers and pilots is going through a series of tests, which Wincer said she wasn’t allowed to say much about for proprietary reasons.

Some 500 experienced test pilots have applied to fly for Virgin Galactic, she said. Meanwhile, more than 500 potential passengers have put down deposits for the $200,000 tickets, totaling close to $16 million, she said.

British business magnate Richard Branson is investing more than $200 million into development of the Virgin Galactic fleet, while the total start-up budget for Spaceport America is $209 million. Located 45 miles north of Las Cruces, Spaceport America has a two mile runway ready for the flights and work is near completion on the Hangar Terminal Facility that will house Virgin Galactic’s fleet of spaceliners.

Wincer said Virgin has already hired more than 100 people, many of them Americans, because large-scale rocketry falls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations passed after the 9/11 attacks.

As work continues to make sure the spaceliner is safe for its passengers – with Branson and his family to take the first non-test flight – the company is now focusing on preparing the on-ground experiences, said Wincer, who has worked for Branson’s resorts in the past.

Virgin plans to fly at least twice a day with each passenger arriving two days before their flight. Those passengers also are expected to bring family, friends and others during their visit, she said.  Virgin is currently assessing what kind of “tourism infrastructure” is available, she said, and talking to its future passengers about what kind of experiences they would like to have during their stays.

Wayne Savage, who chairs the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce’s Commercial Space Committee, said his group is working on issues, such as supporting the tourism experience, but even more critical is trying to make the city a central location for providing supply chain services and other support of the spaceport operations and the companies like Virgin Galactic.

“The good news is that our spaceport is quickly becoming a functioning reality,” Savage said. Operational contracts have recently been awarded to companies that have done work with White Sands Missile Range, he said.

The next day, Pat Hynes, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, talked about the upcoming International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) to the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA). More than 500 people – including those key players in developing the private space industry – are expected to attend ISPCS Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 19-20, at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road.

Hynes told those attending the MVEDA luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces, that there are a number of opportunities for local businesses to make connections at ISPCS.

 Prior to the conference, there will be a Growing Community Partnership Luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 18, at the Commercial Space Exhibit Hall, which will be located inside the museum. The $50 luncheon includes a talk by Allan Lockheed, son of the aviation pioneer who created what is now Lockheed Martin. Hynes said Lockheed will talk about how the space industry will coalesce around Spaceport America – an industry that is currently supported by $60 billion just in government spending. Though a “heavy business conference” attracting attendees from all over the world, ISPCS also will hold panels on creating the supply chain support, Hynes said.

So important is the question of establishing reliable sources of materials, equipment and facilities near Spaceport America that Virgin Galactic also is holding a supply chain meeting the day before ISPCS, Hynes said. “The supply chain is an indicator of the growth of the industry,” she said.

Because ISPCS has become the main annual gathering for those trying to open up this new industry, Hynes said she makes a point to expose them to local and New Mexico products, from its chile to its wines.

One in-state resource that the conference will look at is a center for gliding at Moriarty. Many of the spaceport’s vehicles will glide in for landings, such as Virgin Galactic, she said. Also, research has been conducted at Spaceport America’s sounding rocket launch facilities on winged rocket boosters that glide back to the ground for potential reuse, instead of simply falling away.

The two-day ISPCS costs $649 with discounted rates for active military – $329 – and students – $150. Last year, ISPCS brought in more than $1 million of local economic activity, Hynes said. “That’s a lot of economic impact for this area and this year’s conference will be three times that,” she said.  The proceeds from the conference pay for launches from Spaceport America of student experiments, which Hynes said is very expensive.

The good news is that our spaceport is quickly becoming a functioning reality.