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Spaceport America Discusses Search For New CFO And More With Legislative Finance Committee

Spaceport America

Spaceport America might be trying to reach for the stars, but COVID delays and pending investigations are currently leaving them grounded.

Interim CEO Scott McLaughlin presented to the Legislative Finance Committee Thursday, offering insight into the controversial workings of New Mexico’s only commercialized spaceport.

McLaughlin has been on the job less than a month, following a whistleblower complaint against former CEO Dan Hicks alleging abuse of power. That investigation is expected to conclude in the next few weeks, but New Mexico Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia Keyes said it isn’t the only allegation Hicks is facing.

“There was a complaint filed in the first judicial district court at the end of July against the Spaceport and Dan Hicks, violations of [the] Fair Pay For Women Act, human rights violation and also a whistleblower act, basically sexual discrimination,” Keyes said.  

Coinciding with the investigation is the search for a new CFO. Former CFO Zach De Gregorio resigned after being the one to issue complaints against Hicks.

Despite the controversy, McLaughlin spoke about positive progress being made, such as job creation.

“Right now, we have about 216 private, direct jobs attributed to Spaceport America, and these are not employees of the state of New Mexico, there are employees of Virgin Galactic, SpinLaunch and AeroVironment.” McLaughlin said. “These are direct jobs who create maybe two to three other indirect and induced jobs. We’re looking at somewhere in the order of 700-800 jobs that are attributed to Spaceport America.”

One of the newest tenants, AeroVironment, is working to establish 5G connection. McLaughlin said they came to Spaceport America about a year ago for facilities support.

“This is slightly more than a 260 foot solar powered airplane with ten motors on it,” McLaughlin said. “They are trying to provide cell phone coverage [and] high-speed internet coverage all other the world. After a pretty big search and after a few other test flights at other facilities they picked Spaceport America. So, they invested over eight million in construction, they built a hanger, they put up some office space…so this is a very exciting one.”

Perhaps the most well-known partnership is with Virgin Galactic, who is working to send Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, into space as soon as 2021. Virgin Galactic President Michael Moses said they’ve made great progress with the eight flights completed during the last quarter.    

“Flights coming up this year are going to put New Mexico on the stage,” Moses said. “There are only two states right now that have sent humans into space from their soil, Florida and California. New Mexico will get to be the third.”  

COVID-19 has led to the cancellation of approximately eleven launches at Spaceport America, but Interim CEO Scott McLaughlin is expecting they’ll continue making strides in the commercial space industry post pandemic.

“We see the revenue continuing to grow, especially as Virgin Galactic and other customers move in and continue operations,” McLaughlin said. “We’re also taking a very close look at capital improvements and we’re kind of slowing down those to make sure they’re cost effective, especially considering the current climate, and that they’re prioritized and that we have the right scope. So, this has slowed us down a little bit, but we’ll soon pick up on our capital expenditures to make the improvements we need to make.”

Madison Staten was a Multimedia Reporter for KRWG Public Media from 2020-2022.