EYE IN THE SCEYE
Startup company to build stratospheric airships in NM
Aerospace startup Sceye Inc. will soon build helium-filled airships in New Mexico that, by 2022, could hover over remote places across the state to provide broadband connectivity and environmental monitoring services.
The state Economic Development Department has pledged $5 million in Local Economic Development Act funding to help the company establish a production facility here, bringing 140 new manufacturing and engineering jobs to the state.
The company, which launched in 2014, has been developing and testing its airships at the Roswell
International Air Center and the Moriarty Municipal Airport since 2017. It has invested more than $50 million to create a stratospheric airship built to hover for long periods of time at 65,000 feet up.
The company expects to operate a fleet of five ships over New Mexico within two years to potentially offer broadband service from the sky for the Navajo Nation and other rural areas in partnership with private companies, while also monitoring for methane emissions, ozone levels and other things under contract with the state, said Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes.
The decision by Sceye (pronounced “Sky”) to set up manufacturing in New Mexico and launch its
first commercial services here is a “slam dunk” for the state, Keyes said.
“New Mexico has been home to many innovative companies and Sceye’s approach to broadband and methane monitoring is game changing,” Keyes said in a statement. “It’s these types of disruptive companies that will drive economic development in the state for years to come.”
Sceye CEO Mikkel
Vestergaard will testify today about broadband access and the company’s technology before the Legislature’s Interim Committee on Science, Technology and Communications.
Vestergaard is known worldwide for developing groundbreaking medical technologies to fight malaria and other diseases through Vestergaard, a Swiss-based global health corporation he founded and led for 22 years. He stepped down from the health company last January to concentrate on Sceye as a platform technology to attack global problems, such as monitoring the effects of climate change, while also providing off-grid connectivity in remote communities.
The company is discussing future environmental monitoring services with the state Environment Department, Keyes said. It’s also working with the state Transportation Department to compile comprehensive information on Sceye’s stratosphere-based broadband technology during upcoming airship flights in October, Keyes told the Journal.
That data could then be used by private internet providers to seek federal funding to help tap into Sceye services to offer broadband on the Navajo Nation and elsewhere.
“The Sceye platform has flown two times in New Mexico, but more flights are needed to gather data,”
Keyes said. “… This is an innovative technology solution that could potentially be much less expensive to provide broadband in rural areas of New Mexico than putting fiber in the ground.”
Sceye credits state incentives like LEDA funding for locating its operations here.
“Our partnership with the Economic Development Department has helped us choose New Mexico, not just for research and development, but for scaled production of our business in the future,” Vestergaard said in a statement.
The company hasn’t announced where it will put its manufacturing site. But it’s seeking technical assistance from the state’s national laboratories and research universities.
“The company is collaborating with local institutions for the skilled workforce it needs,” Keyes said. “These are highpaying jobs.”