In the high desert southeast of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, crowds cheered on the crew of Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceplane as they ascended through Earth’s atmosphere.
The launch marked the company’s second commercial space flight, crewed by three of the company’s first private astronauts out of New Mexico’s publicly funded Spaceport America.
With Virgin Galactic commencing regular commercial space flights out of the spaceport, proponents say that it can bring a lot of economic opportunity for New Mexicans, but some in the surrounding communities aren’t so convinced.
Jeff Dukatt, a business owner in T or C, said that the Spaceport hasn’t lived up to his expectations.
“A lot of people felt that we were ignored. We end up paying the highest sales tax to support [Spaceport America,] but we get the least benefit from it,” he said. “Unless you’re coming down from Albuquerque, you don’t go through T or C or near it. And that’s pretty much what’s happened here. We were supposed to have a welcome center that really hasn’t materialized yet, and that’s all I could basically say about it. It’s kind of a big letdown other than they’re finally flying out of there after, what, 23 years?”
Spaceport America was initially built with nearly $220 million in public funds, with $142.1 million allocated by the State of New Mexico, and $76.4 million generated by local spaceport gross receipt tax from Doña Ana and Sierra County.
Scott McLaughlin, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, said that although growth has been slower than expected, he believes that the state has the opportunity to become one of the biggest markets in the aerospace industry. In the same way that the tech industry took hold in California’s Silicon Valley, McLaughlin says that New Mexico could become the world’s “Space Valley.”
“When you look at the types of jobs and the number of jobs here, especially in aerospace or technology, it’s not that much different from 20 years ago. What the spaceport does in terms of Space Valley and trying to build up the aerospace ecosystem is completely uniq ue,” he said. “You can go do other things infrastructure-wise, but that doesn't set fire to the economy. It doesn't do things that create a whole new industry in the area. And that's what's different about Spaceport America. We're trying to ignite a whole new industry across Albuquerque, to El Paso that can hopefully result in thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs in the future. It's going to take some time, but we have to stay the steady course to be able to do this.”
Mclaughlin said that while Virgin Galactic is the main tenant at the spaceport, more effort is going into attracting other companies in order to diversify their operations. Additionally, he said that the Spaceport Authority, in partnership with NMSU’s Center for Border Economic Development, will soon release an economic impact report that will give taxpayers a reason to be optimistic.
“Right now we have about six different tenants. We hope to add another one or two in the next six months or so. Those are what we call tenants, those who are leasing land for several years. We also have lots of short-term customers who come and they may stay with us only a week or two and do some flights or do some other experiments,” he said. “We’re almost done with our economic impact for 2022, and we’ll release that probably in another three or four weeks. And I think we’ll see that we’re very happy looking at one year that we’re actually in pretty good shape and going in the right direction.”
But according to Doña Ana County Commissioner Shannon Reynolds, Spaceport America isn’t creating the economic environment that was promised when it was initially pitched to Doña Ana and Sierra County.
“If we measure the success based on the numbers and the number of jobs created and the amount of revenue it’s actually created in Doña Ana County, I’d say that we’re falling short of what our expectations were, and what we need in order to be profitable,” he said. “My model, and I could be wrong, but my model suggests that it’ll be several years before we ever recover that money back to the taxpayers.”
Reynolds, who sits on the New Mexico Spaceport Authority tax board, said that from his perspective, the money could have been better spent elsewhere.
“When I think about $150 million in tax dollars over a 20-year period of time, which is what we're talking about, you know, there's a lot of other things I could do here in the county with that money,” he said. “I mean, we are struggling with infrastructure, with sewer systems, with transportation, with health care and both mental and general health care. And we also have food deserts. I mean, I believe that that money properly spent in order to encourage economic development here in the county, I believe we’ll get a larger return on that investment through those mechanisms than we will from the spaceport directly.”
Meanwhile, in Sierra County, Jeff Dukatt said while the spaceport hasn’t lived up to his expectations, there’s still hope that the regularly scheduled launches could inject some life into T or C’s economy.
“I would like to see the Spaceport Commission actually have a visitor center that’s open that we can supply with goods and stuff. I’d like to see the people of T or C, now that we have some money available, start building infrastructure, have more places for people to stay,” he said. “It’s a great showcase for Truth or Consequences, but you’ve got to come in here.”
While many in the Aerospace Industry consider Virgin Galactic’s regularly scheduled commercial flights a success, some in the surrounding communities are hoping for a bigger spark in the local economy.
