Spaceport America: The Fleecing of New Mexico

Category: To the Point with Mick Rich To the Point with Mick Rich
Published: 17 December 2021 17 December 2021

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 Image by Film Las Cruces

No wonder the Democrat Leaders in Santa Fe won't let New Mexicans see Spaceport America.

Bill Richardson announced in December of 2006 New Mexico would lead the country into Space with Spaceport America. Santa Fe Democrats greeted the news with jubilation. Today Spaceport America is behind locked gates and Santa Fe Democrats are silent. They are hoping New Mexicans don't discover what they know; Spaceport America is a Catastrophic Failure. A Catastrophic Failure is not a result of one single event but a cascading of one failure after another where recovery is not possible. For Spaceport America those cascading events are as follows:

Without an economic or feasibility study, how did Bill Richardson know it was a good bet for New Mexico? Without an economic and feasibility study, Richardson gambled our money on his Spaceport America.

New Mexico gambled $400 million on Spaceport America. So far, Virgin Galactic has gambled less than $30 million. Adding insult to injury, Santa Fe Democrats paid Virgin Galactic $1.5 million to put the Zia symbol on VSS Unity for the July 2021 flight.

Spaceport America is falling apart without being used. Spaceport America issued a Request for Proposal for structural and architectural repairs to the Operations and Fire Department Building, then rescinded the RFP. In my forty years as a contractor, I have seen public entities hide embarrassing failures by quietly awarding projects keeping them out of the public eye. What else is being hidden?

Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise suffered an inflight catastrophic breakup killing one pilot and injuring the second pilot in 2014. In July of 2021 Virgin Galactic VSS Unity with Richard Branson onboard flew into space with warning lights flashing flew outside the designated air space then landed at Spaceport America. After the flight, the FAA grounded Virgin Galactic until the technical issues were corrected. Virgin Galactic then announced they would resume space launches in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Virgin Galactic has experienced a high turnover of individuals in critical positions in the last few years. They are on their third CEO in three years, appointed a new CFO in 2021 and their chief pilot was removed shortly after the 2021 flight. Most concerning is the new CEO of Virgin Galactic is past President of the Disney Company who has no experience in the Aerospace Industry.

In August of 2021, Richard Branson sold $300 Million of Virgin Galactic stock on top of the $500 Million he sold in 2019 and another $150 Million he sold in May of 2020. Clearly, Richard Branson is collecting his winnings.

We need to know how did we get Spaceport America? How much of our money did Bill Richardson gamble on Spaceport America? We need an audit of all financial records and contracts associated with Spaceport America. Can Spaceport America carry out its mission? We need an assessment of all facilities. What is Spaceport America's impact on our environment? We need an environmental impact study of their operations. We need transparency, it begins with access to Spaceport America and extends to independent investigations, audits, and assessments.

Spaceport America is a Catastrophic Failure. Richard Branson is getting out and New Mexico needs to get out. Now is the time to sell Spaceport America before it joins the other abandoned buildings—Onate Monument and Visitor Center and El Camino Real Heritage Museum —that were paid for and built by hardworking New Mexican’s and are abandoned.

Ironic

Albuquerque Mayor Keller announced that Group Orion, an Aerospace company canceled plans for their multibillion-dollar facility in Albuquerque (the Albuquerque Journal reported Group Orion is unable to pay back $289 million in promissory notes) and the mayor went on to say that he always believed Group Orion was too good to be true. Spaceport America was too good to be true too.

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