At his small jewelry store in southern New Mexico, Robert Hansek spends his days untangling chakra beads and answering questions about the healing properties of amethyst crystals. After his 40 years since registration, he has met thousands of health-conscious tourists eager to explore the hot springs spread throughout the region.
But he has rarely seen the type of traveler who promised to change his small town of Truth or Consequences: a space enthusiast.
“This has been a failure,” he said of the Spaceport America project, which was envisioned as a precursor to commercial space travel and promoted by state officials for more than 20 years as a boost to the local economy.
Less than a mile down the road, Arthur Berger, who runs an art gallery, watched in awe as rocket planes soared into the sky over the nearby mountains in 2021, shortly after moving to town. He talked about the moment he saw it. He remembers the boom.
After years of delays, Spaceport America’s anchor tenant Virgin Galactic has sent founder Richard Branson and his team to the edge of space — and the proof is finally here: New Mexico Many locals thought he was a strong candidate. In the commercial space race.
“People came from London and Taipei that week,” Berger said. “It was surreal.”
In this part of rural New Mexico, opinions vary about the spaceport, a futuristic structure in a rugged desert landscape that has cost more than $200 million in state and local funds.
Residents of Sierra County and neighboring Doña Ana County, including Truth or Consequences, donated millions of dollars in sales taxes to subsidize the project.
Many say they are tired of waiting for the rewards they could have gotten from aerospace jobs and the tourists who are drawn to combat sites like storm chasers. But others see it as an ambitious bet on the future that is finally starting to pay off.
This year, Virgin Galactic carried out six spaceport launches, the most in any year so far, bombarding researchers and space tourists who can afford $450,000 tickets to the edge of space. .
Virgin Galactic will use carrier-based aircraft to fly the rocket plane to about 45,000 feet above Earth, where it will separate passengers and propel it to an altitude of more than 80 miles.
Despite recent momentum, Virgin Galactic announced in November that it would lay off 185 employees (73 in New Mexico), reduce the company’s size to about 800 and suspend flights in mid-2024. The announcement caused further setbacks. The company said the job cuts are aimed at allowing Virgin Galactic to focus resources on a new class of suborbital spaceplanes.And this month, Mr. Branson Said The Financial Times said he would no longer invest in Virgin Galactic, noting that he “doesn’t have very deep pockets” in the company.
For Truth or Consequences Mayor Amanda Forrister, the idea that a spaceport could one day rebuild the community still feels like a possibility, but it’s far from a guarantee.
“That’s a bit of a question mark,” she said.
enter the first floor
A fascination with rockets, space, and what lies beyond us runs deep in New Mexico.
After a military balloon crashed near Roswell in 1947, this southeastern New Mexico town became part of the zeitgeist, fueled by conspiracy theories by those who believed it was the crash site of an unidentified flying object used by aliens. has been widespread for several decades. The world’s first atomic bomb, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the northern part of the state, was detonated at the White Sands Missile Range, where the U.S. military still conducts rocket tests.
So when Gov. Bill Richardson announced plans in late 2005 to partner with Virgin Galactic to build a commercial spaceport in the state, it was a natural and beneficial move for many. It seemed possible.
“This is a unique opportunity for New Mexico to be on the ground floor of a new industry that will bring new businesses, more high-wage jobs, and opportunities to advance our state’s economy,” said Richardson, who died in September. he said. Three months later, he said as he signed the enabling bill.
The reality of commercial space travel felt firmly within reach, and almost immediately Branson’s company began accepting reservations for spaceflights at $200,000 each.
Construction began in 2006 about 30 miles east of Truth or Consequences and ultimately cost $218.5 million in public funds. Set on 18,000 acres of sage bush and yucca, this circular structure looks like a scene from one of his science fiction movies from a distance. The two-lane road leading to the entrance is lined with cattle guards. More than half of the construction funding was allocated by the state, with the remaining $76.4 million coming from local county taxes.
Doña Ana County voters approved a 0.25 percent gross receipts tax to support the spaceport in 2007, and Sierra County voters followed suit a year later.a condition report Researchers published in 2005 estimated that the spaceport could bring $550 million in additional economic activity and approximately 4,300 jobs to the region by 2020. Ta.
“The economic impact of this new spaceport is potentially very large, reflecting the strong gentrification potential of the nascent space tourism industry,” the report states.
The report also predicts that 376 suborbital launches will take place in 2019.
In reality, it generated only a fraction of that, with one report saying it generated $138 million in economic output and about 800 jobs in 2022. recent reports From the spaceport. The first manned space flight took place in May 2021.
“When you look at the numbers and what’s happened over the years, this was a bad investment,” said Doña Ana County Commissioner Shannon Reynolds.
Reynolds said he was disappointed by Brunson’s recent comments.
“If he doesn’t invest in his own business at Virgin Galactic, what can others infer from this?” he asked. “I think we bet on the wrong anchor tenant for the spaceport.”
“This has been a long journey.”
In recent years, Spaceport and Mr. Branson have found themselves facing an increasingly crowded field of billionaire competitors.
Nine days after Branson’s 2021 suborbital spaceflight (which Berger watched from an art gallery), Jeff Bezos followed suit with his aerospace company Blue Origin, which he launched from rural West Texas. conducted a voyage. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was a Spaceport tenant for a short time, but now has launch sites in Florida, Texas and California.
For many local residents, their deep dissatisfaction is driven not only by delays but also by concerns about the use of public funds.
In 2020, Spaceport America’s executive director Dan Hicks was fired after a whistleblower came forward with allegations of financial mismanagement and abuse of power.
The state hired a firm to investigate, and the state auditor said it found “significant failures in internal controls that resulted in potential waste and abuse of taxpayer funds.”
Scott McLaughlin, who succeeded Hicks as the spaceport’s executive director, said in an interview that his team’s recently released economic impact report shows there is a bright spot on the horizon. Ta.
“This has been a long journey that has required patience from the public and policymakers,” McLaughlin said. He noted that in addition to Virgin Galactic, another major tenant is SpinLaunch, a company that builds technology aimed at providing rapid and low-cost access to space. The company conducted its first test flight in 2021.
“My main priority is finding a new tenant,” McLaughlin said.
He said a large part of his job involves talking to companies about the spaceport almost every week and giving tours to prospective residents several times a month.
“But many of the companies we’re talking to are in the very early stages of technology development, so adoption could take two years or more,” McLaughlin said. “In a young company, it’s hard to know who will ultimately succeed or fail.”
Before dawn on a recent morning, more than a dozen STEM educators and students arrived at Spaceport America, just days before Virgin Galactic announced plans to cancel launches in the middle of next year. This will be the last launch.
The air was bitterly cold, and the group huddled on a concrete slab a short distance from the runway. At 9 a.m., a Virgin Galactic aircraft known as VMS Eve took off, carrying two researchers and a space tourist who paid $450,000.
The aircraft circled high into the sky, reaching nearly three times the speed of sound, before the rocket plane, known as VSS Unity, separated and hurled the crew toward the edge of space for several minutes. The mission lasted about an hour from liftoff to touchdown back at the spaceport. Virgin officials will then have a few weeks to prepare for his next release of Unity.
“This is quite a sight to see,” McLaughlin said from the parking lot, where about a dozen onlookers had come to watch the flight.
“Sometimes this lot gets full,” he said. “Maybe not.”
ground attraction
The address for Spaceport America’s launch site is listed as “Truth or Consequences,” but the center of the town of 6,000 people is a 40-minute drive along the Rio Grande.
Once known as Hot Springs, the town was named after the 1950 host of the game show Truth or Consequences, who promised to change the show’s name after it aired on its 10th anniversary. .
At this time of year, cars with license plates from Minnesota and Montana line the highways as winter transplants arrive to escape the cold. On a recent afternoon, hours after launch, the Spaceport America Visitor Center, housed in an old adobe building in town, was empty.
Kathleen Sloan, a local journalist and longtime resident, is fed up with promises about spaceports, and the whole situation, as Virgin Galactic aircraft could theoretically be able to take off from some airports. said it seemed like a bit of a farce.
Local residents “paid enough money,” she said.
Still, the town’s growth cannot be denied.
New York City-based Prereal Investments has purchased more than 100 properties in Sierra County for about $40 million in just over a year. The company plans to resell the property, which is a combination of residential and commercial space.
But while the company touts the facility’s proximity to Spaceport America, “our choice was driven by the county’s natural resources,” said Prereal CEO James Prendamano. Ta.
He said “hot springs, a wide range of world-class outdoor activities” were important to his investment.
Marianne Blue, who moved to the city with her husband, John Masterson, in 2016 after quitting a tech job in Seattle, said this type of investment is encouraging.
Eager to build a sense of community in their new home, they soon opened the town’s first brewery, Truth or Consequences Brewing Company. I have noticed a steady arrival of transplant buddies, especially since the pandemic began.
Blau knew a little about the spaceport before moving, but he didn’t know how close it was to his new home. Blaue said Spaceport and Virgin employees, as well as several customers on space missions, have stopped by for a beer. The beer selection also includes space-inspired beers such as Star Eater Black IPA and Cosmic Blonde.
“There’s always going to be interest in space, and I think that’s beneficial to the community,” she said.
On the afternoon of a recent presentation, Mr. Hansek, a jewelry store owner, watched cars pass by in front of his store. At this time of year, most of his customers are snowbirds who come to town for the winter.
As Hansek unpacked the cardboard boxes of goods, he thought about the long-standing promise that space travelers would come to his community. He laughed as if to himself.
“We know what people come here for, and it’s not to go to space,” he said. “That’s wishful thinking at best.”
That same afternoon, Berger was in his gallery, working with local artists to exhibit new paintings.
He enjoys escaping Santa Fe’s saturated art scene, he said. These days, he spends a lot of time showcasing the work of Sierra County artists, including high school students.
“Did you hear the boom?” he excitedly told a patron in town about the sound VSS Unity made as it re-entered the atmosphere. “There are very few places in the world where you can see or hear something like that.”