Posts Tagged ‘Truth or Consequences’

Release courtesy of Spaceport America

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

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.

Release courtesy of NMSU News Center

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.

The September MVEDA Business on the Border Forum will feature a Southern New Mexico economic development update.  A panel of regional economic development professionals will discuss recent changes in the area’s economy. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 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.

Featured panelists will include:

Davin Lopez is the President/CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA), in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Davin serves on the board of directors of New Mexico Partnership, the private economic development business attraction arm of the State of New Mexico.

John Mulcahy is the Executive Director of the Sierra County Economic Development Organization (SCEDO) in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. John is currently the Co-Chairman of the Spaceport America Regional Economic Development Group working with Dona Ana County and the Spaceport America Director and staff.

Mike Espiritu is the President/CEO of the Otero County Economic Development Council (OECDC) and the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Mike serves on the board of directors of the New Mexico Industrial Development Executives Association (NMIDEA).

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, September 1 by sending an email to rsvp@mveda.com or by calling the office at (575) 525-2852. The meeting is open to the public.

Photo by Fred Shepherd

Release courtesy of Spaceport America

LAS CRUCES, NM — The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Visitor Experience for Spaceport America, announced Christine Anderson, Executive Director of the NMSA.

“Spaceport America is all about creating new jobs and making New Mexico an even bigger tourism destination,” said Anderson. “This contract will help develop an exciting attraction for our domestic and international visitors while also building a strong brand for Spaceport America throughout the world.”

The RFP calls for services in the following areas: attraction and exhibit development, visitor facilities design, marketing and branding, fundraising/sponsorship development, and market research services. Complete details are contained in the RFP issued and posted on the Spaceport America website, under the “Proposals” tab, at: http://www.spaceportamerica.com/proposals/spaceport-rfps/visitor-experience.html.

The NMSA has established as a part of its website an online business registry so local businesses can post contact information and the level and type of services they offer. Larger companies can identify potential sub-contractors and suppliers with the capability to provide specific goods and/or services.

Optional pre-proposal meetings and a site visit to Spaceport America have been scheduled for this RFP. NMSA has scheduled this event for Thursday, June 9, 2011, and encourages interested participants to attend. Details can be found in the RFP.

About Spaceport America

Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. The state-of-the-art launch facility is under construction near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and while expected to become fully operational later in 2011, public preview tours of Spaceport America are now available. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with entrepreneurial space leaders like Virgin Galactic, UP Aerospace, 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.