Is New Mexico ready for liftoff?
If you drove there today looking for the proposed site of the world's first commercial spaceport, you might not find Upham, NM. To call this a one-horse town would be a gross overstatement, for there is no horse and there is no town. Upham sits on a vast plain carved with arroyos, about 30 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences-which looks like a booming metropolis by comparison. Upham's "city center" is marked by a solitary abandoned house near a forlorn windmill whose blades rake lazily through the air with each passing breeze.
Next to the house is a stock tank mysteriously inhabited by hundreds of bustling fish. And-for the moment-they're the only things bustling for miles around.
It's hard to imagine this
desolate place as the site of a $225 million Phillipe Starck-designed spaceport where the rich and famous will zoom into zero gravity. It also seems pretty tranquil for the future headquarters of the Rocket Racing League-a fantastical new sports organization that plans to pit rocket planes flown by former F-16 pilots against one another on a virtual racecourse in the sky.
But if Gov. Bill Richardson and an international posse of space-loving visionaries have their way, that's exactly what it will become.
On Dec. 14, when Richardson and Virgin CEO Richard Branson first unveiled their plans to build the spaceport, Upham suddenly was thrust onto the world's radar-a tiny blip toasted by gazillionaires and space geeks at cocktail parties from Queensland, Australia to New York, NY. People wanted to know what Upham is like now (Well, it's a wide open, uninhabited space. Except for some captive fish…), and what it will be like once Branson's master plan is complete (There will be elegant, futuristic architecture, an underground maze of service facilities, runways slicing the desert, the thunder of rocket engines piercing the sky…). And since
then, investors, bloggers and real estate mavens have speculated about the possibility of an economic boom in Sierra and Doña Ana counties-an area poised to become ground zero for the most exciting and potentially lucrative new industry since the dawn of the Internet.
New Mexico's future as host to the nascent space travel industry has been a hot topic during the legislative session for an obvious reason: money. Under the current Richardson-backed proposal, the state would pay more than $135 million for the construction of the spaceport, roads and runways. As of press time bills to allow southern New Mexicans to decide whether they want to raise another $100 million through local gross
receipts tax to help pay building costs were still awaiting final legislative approval. For many residents, including former US Sen. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, who was an Apollo 17 astronaut, the expense is an overriding concern. "Ultimately, the value has to be sufficient to support private investment…I don't see that taxpayers, in general terms, should be investing," Schmitt told The Santa Fe New Mexican in December. Some critics have expressed their opinions in far stronger language. On the Mises Institute Economic
blog, for instance, a poster named Yancey Ward wrote, "Well, since this venture is sure to fail, that's $235 million down the toilet."
One of the proposal's most vocal opponents has been State Sen. Joe Carraro (R-Bernalillo), who argues that taxpayer dollars would be better spent on New Mexico's most pressing needs, like improved heath care and education. "I'm not trying to stop the spaceport, but I want us to put our money into the dreams and hopes of our citizens, many of whom are barely making it," Carraro said in a recent telephone interview. "Our people aren't going to be able to take advantage of these space rides. After these wealthy tourists are finished with their rides are they going to stay here and take advantage of our health care systems and our schools? No. They're going to say 'Wow, that was a neat time I had in New
Mexico, I got to take a space ride.' And then they're going to leave."
Spaceport proponents, however, are quick to point out the economic benefits of this new proposition-ones
they say
could create a Silicon Valley-type explosion in the Las Cruces-T or C area. Indeed, while numerous states are vying to lure the industry to their own doorsteps, New Mexico has a multitude of advantages that have so far clinched its position as leader of the space race. Regardless of the Legislature's financing decisions, the implications of space commercialization as a whole are huge, as the futuristic fantasies of the last century inch closer to reality. In a Feb. 10 speech, US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said that the emergence of the space travel industry
would be "as profound-and as transformational for our society-as when President Eisenhower signed the law that created the Interstate Highway System 50 years ago and connected our great nation."
The blueprint for the proposed spaceport sprawls over 27 miles
, with protected airspace from the ground to infinity thanks to the neighboring White Sands Missile Range. According to spaceport advocates, New Mexico's 350 annual days of sunshine and the emptiness of the surrounding countryside (only two ranch families live within 30 miles of the site) make Upham an ideal place to launch
rockets. In addition to Virgin Galactic, spaceship builders like Connecticut-based UP Aerospace and UK-based Starchaser Industries have also decided to call southern New Mexico home.
Starchaser parked its North American headquarters in Las Cruces after a worldwide search, ruling out competing locations like Cape Canaveral, Fla. and Mojave, Calif. "Unlike Mojave, which is controlled by an Air Force base, Upham's air space is locally controlled. And unlike Florida, which suffers regular damage from hurricanes, the skies here are almost always clear," says Rich Kestner, executive director of Starchaser's US operations. "Because of Upham's ideal conditions, you will fly out of New Mexico Spaceport more on schedule than anywhere else on planet Earth."
As a token of goodwill toward New Mexico, Richard Branson has agreed to send up one state resident on Virgin Galactic's first suborbital flight, free of charge. And for other members of the public
who can't afford a ride, the spaceport will offer ample gawking opportunities. The architecture itself will be a draw, from-among other features-its giant eye-shaped window to its haute-designed, subterranean spectator areas. The Virgin Galactic rocket ships, created by Scaled Composites' spacecraft-builder extraordinaire Burt Rutan, also will be a sight to see as their brightly painted frames hurtle toward takeoff down a long horizontal runway. Not to mention the fact that the 45,000-strong roster of astronauts is awfully glittery. Celebrities who've so far plunked down cash for the chance to see space up close include Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, William Shatner, Victoria Principal, Sigourney Weaver and Dave Navarro, to name just a few. But what's likely to be even more effective at capturing the public imagination than Virgin Galactic's star-studded flights is the Rocket Racing League.
The league is the brainchild of Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X Prize Foundation, which awarded $10 million last year to Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne after it became the first private
spacecraft to make a manned sub-orbital flight twice in 24 hours, carrying a passenger. For his newest venture, Diamandis teamed up with former Indy Racing League team co-owner Granger Whitelaw to combine his rocket experience with Whitelaw's racing know-how. The goal is to take vehicular sports to the next level: the atmosphere. Spectators will be able to look on, both from their seats at the spaceport's racing site and at home on TV, as pilots fly streamlined rocket planes called X-Racers at speeds of 300 miles per hour around individual computer-generated "tracks" in the sky.
Sound like something out
of science fiction? It is. The inspiration for the X-Racers comes from the pod races depicted in
Star Wars
. Just like the competitions flown in by those make-believe machines, the real versions will be set against the harsh desert landscape. To add to the viewing excitement, the planes will emit 20-foot plumes of roaring kerosene-fueled flame and special effects will create the illusion of explosions on the Jumbotron and home viewers' TV screens if
planes should come too near each other or go outside the boundaries of the course. (Real explosions will be next to impossible since flights will be staggered and each plane will travel inside a separate track.)
Tim Gormley, the Las Cruces-based chief operating officer of the Rocket Racing League, has high hopes for the new sport's potential to draw international attention and revenue to New Mexico. "It'll have the same impact that NASCAR had on Charlotte, or Indy racing had on Indianapolis," he says. "We're not just talking about flying rockets, we're talking about building an entertainment industry, and we're challenging the state to hold on to as much of this work as it possibly can. The tourism, the merchandizing-hats, pins, bomber jackets, posters, you name it-all of that can be distributed here. What that equates to is hundreds of millions of dollars in sustainable business opportunities. And the teams that will be flying these X-Racers don't have homes right now. They are small entrepreneurial businesses that could pick up and relocate to New Mexico."
The first time rocket racers appeared in the
public eye was last October, at the inaugural X Prize Cup in Las Cruces. That spectacle drew a crowd of 30,000 people to watch the newest generation of rocket vehicles in action. If all goes according to the Rocket Racing League's plan, the 2006 X Prize Cup will feature 10 rocket planes competing for a $2 million purse, and will draw a crowd of over 100,000 viewers. The league also plans to broadcast races on major TV networks, and a video-game version of the races is already in development.
Albuquerque-based businessman Marty O'Malley currently is working to create an in-state X-Racer team with his son, F-16 top gun instructor Derek O'Malley, as the principle pilot. Marty O'Malley believes it's of the utmost importance that the state fund the spaceport project. "Right now the international spotlight is on New Mexico," he says, "and that kind of attention has got to be good. Tourism is our biggest industry. There will be folks flying into Albuquerque, visiting Santa Fe, then driving to the spaceport to watch the races. They're going to eat at restaurants and stay in hotels and buy products-even if it's just a big splash once a year at the X Prize Cup finals, that's a lot of money coming in and it'll benefit the whole state."
At least 10 other states besides New Mexico are investigating
opportunities to build spaceports. In addition to California and Florida, competitors include Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Alabama, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
The vision for the spaceport is nothing if not grand, and many interested parties agree that the initial expenditure could pay huge dividends both in terms of revenue and the project's place in the history of technology. In fact, the Web is abuzz with opinions on its growth potential. On a site called SpacePragmatism.com, blogger Dan Schrimpsher writes: "I wonder if the balance of power in this country is shifting. Just as the west coast in the 20th century became an economic & cultural
force in this country, I wonder if states like New Mexico are going to wield similar power in the 21st century. Above a map showing New Mexico and northern Texas Schrimpsher includes the caption, "These states are the place for new ideas and free thinking. The map below may show the new economic power of the U.S. in the 21st century."
Even Sen. Carraro has shown interest in the economic benefits that could come from basing commercial space operations in this state. "I think it would be wonderful for southern New Mexico to become the new Silicon Valley," he says. "The area is a hotbed of technological and scientific innovation. But the money has to come from private investors. The role of government is not to become an entrepreneur."
With a $200,000 price tag on each trip, it's true that space flight itself will have a limited audience. But two studies commissioned in January by the New Mexico Economic Development office suggest that the real benefit to local communities would come in the form of thousands of new jobs and millions of extra dollars in tourist and entertainment revenue.
Pro-spaceport folks such as Kestner
say the project is so important it would happen somehow regardless of whether the state puts up the money. "This idea is so big that nothing organizational will stand in the way of it succeeding eventually," he says. "There are smarter people than me out there who will deal with where the money comes from."
If the spaceport does get built, Duane Jokinen, managing broker of Steinborn Realty in Las Cruces, thinks there could be a real estate boom. "We've already got 500 agents selling in Las Cruces this year, up from 300 last year," he says. "We're hoping they fund the spaceport, because we're ready for more development. I don't know if the lag time will be months or five years or 10 years. I don't see drastic tomorrow-type of changes happening, but I think they will happen."
From a buyer's perspective, southern New Mexico is a prime location for a boom. Compared to real estate prices in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, properties in Las Cruces and T or C are still a major bargain. At press time, a cute 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom fixer-upper in Las Cruces was listed for $55,000. A similar property in Truth or Consequences was listed for just $35,000. Most land within a few miles of Upham is rural property owned by state or federal agencies. But there's still plenty of land available for development if the area should become the commercial space industry's cradle of innovation. Scientists and engineers will need homes, as well as business owners, pilots, product manufacturers and service industry employees. And if that should happen,
the area will attract other professionals like doctors, teachers, firemen and police-all the makings of a prosperous new town.
Eric Anderson, CEO of Arlington, Va.-based Space Adventures-the only company in the world so far to have launched paying passengers into orbit-says the development of space commercialization is inevitable, and it's sure to be big business. "I think this is just like anything else. At the beginning of the cell phone industry and computer industry, only rich people had them," he says. "It takes a certain amount of time to move beyond that. Whether it's five years or 25 years remains to be seen."
If there's one thing proponents of space commercialization agree
on, it's the fact that rockets, futuristic design, the allure of zero gravity, the spectacle of earth from afar-all the fascinating elements associated with space-must capture the public imagination in order for the industry to grow and thrive. This idea is what Kestner likes to call "contemporary space." "What we're doing right now is more akin to what the contemporary art world does than the traditional idea of space travel, which was government-funded. Now public interaction is critical," he says. "For years, we didn't get close to experiencing space first hand-it was just that grainy black-and-white image on the TV screen. Today one of the critical elements is to make space as hands-on as possible, to have people as close up as they can possibly, safely be."
In addition to engaging the public, the other major goal of contemporary space is to encourage advancements in spacecraft technology. As the auto-racing world has shown
with its quest for faster, more efficient cars, competition is a great catalyst for innovation. For this reason, scientists are optimistic about the improvements that could arise from rocket racing. Diamandis has said the Rocket Racing League expects to develop a faster, more easily maneuverable second-generation X-Racer-based on experience learned during the first racing season-by 2008. Just as R&D used in Formula 1 cars has been used to create better street vehicles, X-Racer technology is likely to speed along the development of more practical space applications. For instance, the basic technology to enable high-speed suborbital mail delivery or express coast-to-coast transportation already exists. With focused testing, these services could potentially be available within the next decade. Tim Gormley believes the universities and tech companies already present in New Mexico will become engaged in rocket research and development and will attract other talent to the area, making the spaceport not only a hub for luxury travel and racing entertainment, but also rocket testing and evaluation.
The first rocket launch from Upham is expected to happen just next month. On March 27, UP Aerospace plans to send off the Spaceloft, an unmanned craft carrying seven commercial and educational payloads. The rocket will be quite unlike Virgin Galactic's giant
airplane-like spaceship, which requires a long runway for takeoff. Instead, the UP Aerospace model will be a standard missile-shaped rocket that launches in a vertical arc from a simple concrete launch pad. Unspectacular, perhaps, but as spaceport supporters see it, the best way to introduce people to the gospel of commercial space is to simply launch
something
.
"Every time you put fire in the sky, you convert more and more folks," Kestner says. "There was a big crowd on the sidelines back in 2004 watching Burt Rutan, but it wasn't till after his second flight that Branson pulled out his checkbook. The more physical reality you see, the less visionary power you have to have. Somebody's got to launch something out of Upham, and when that happens the naysayers will change their minds."
