The New Mexico state legislature will convene this week for a brief 30-day session where, among other things, legislators will be asked to support funding for a commercial spaceport in the southern part of the state, with space tourism operator Virgin Galactic as the anchor customer. When the Virgin Galactic agreement was announced last month the plan appeared to have bipartisan support among legislators, but as the Santa Fe New Mexican reports, there is some opposition to the plan:
Lawmakers will be eager to bring home their share of the bacon to their respective districts, and some have expressed doubts about some of Richardson’s capital-outlay proposals, including shelling out $58 million in state funds to help pay for a spaceport where British tycoon Richard Branson would start a space-tourism business.
While some legislators have long dreamed of such a project, state Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, said last week, “There’s a lot of other pressing needs in this state. I don’t see the benefit of launching rich people into space.”
However, Gov. Bill Richardson, a potential Democratic Presidential candidate in 2008, does have some support from the federal level. The AP reports that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) has pledged to “do all I can” help the spaceport work with federal entities from the FAA to the Bureau of Land Management to see the spaceport project through.
It is incredible that one of the poorest states in the USA is going to spend our tax dollars on this so-called Space Port. Thats putting all your eggs in one basket.
No kidding. Heaven forbid a poor state spends money on a program that could bring in hundreds or thousands of skilled jobs into the local economy!
Why can’t NM spend money on welfare instead?
[I’m assuming the previous comments weren’t sarcasm.]
As a resident of that “poor” state, I think this is money well spent. NM is actually fairly flush with money due to a windfall of income from oil and gas sales.
I hardly think that this is putting all ones eggs in one basket. NM is a logical location for a spaceport, given the open skies and existing range (WSMR) space to the east of the proposed site.
Yes, there are plenty of other things that the money could be spent on; each area of discrentionary funding has it’s own proponents and detractors.
This is an investment in the future. If New Mexico doesn’t fork up the money, other states will. The Florida government was criticized for not doing enough to attract the business to their state. They see this as jobs for New Mexico.
I’ve often heard the arguement that this is tax money for to send rich people into space. Far from it. Scaled Composites (Space Ship One) and other companies are not building these space ships for joy rides for rich tourists, they are building them to give us cheap access to space, to get us off the Earth, access the resources of close asteroids, and push the advance of the human race across the solar system. Having rich people pay some money along the way helps with this development. They’d be foolish to turn down the money.
It’s time we gave the world a reason to hope again. We can’t keep thinking about only our own generation. We need to think about future generations. They will thank us for this investment in their future.
Your right about (bringing) skilled jobs to New Mexico. To bad our labor force wil not benefit much. Speaking of bringing skilled jobs to New Mexico, we should be thinking of spreading the risk of a 300 million capital outlay. One fatal crash and this program will likely be halted. Remember Burts comment about that other space agency. Paybacks are hell.Texas, Florida, California, Oklahoma are licking their chops.
Hope for the world is not a Spaceport.
New Mexico is a logical place for a Spaceport, it is just not a logical place to use this kind of tax money. The revenue from oil and gas should be used to help New Mexicans. If the Spaceport is going to help future generations, let the Feds shell out the money. Hell the amount we spent in Iraq, we could have a spaceport in every state.
Why on EARTH should we NM taxpayers shell out $58 Million for this? If Branson will bring jobs to the state, so be it, but why risk tax money? On top of that, there’s a practical matter to consider: if this is built, there is a serious danger of T or C and Las Cruces becoming totally gentrified… and what will happen the first time there’s a crash and Anthony or Santa Teresa or any other town along El Camino Real is destroyed? If Branson wants to continue with this, let him risk HIS money and not the NM taxpayer. He can afford an extra 58 million bucks. There’s NO need for us to share the risk. Also… noise. This won’t be a quiet little outing on a river boat. It’ll be loud, obnoxious, and deafening. I think it looks good on paper at first glance. Glance again. This is a terrible idea.