Could N.M. boldly go to the heavens? Maybe, just maybe ...

New Mexico has a lottery. Big whoop. But now it’s in a lottery, eligible to win a potential jackpot that could change how this state operates for the next 100 years.

Hyperbole? I don’t think so. Albuquerque is one of 31 spots in the U.S. under consideration to host the U.S. Space Command, which directs the military’s umbrella of defense in a place where no man — well actually, some men and women — have gone before.

Hold the eye roll, please. Unlike all those other corporate-relocation bait-and-switches that always end up headed to Seattle or Dallas or Phoenix, this is a game New Mexico actually could win.

Maybe should win.

We have Air Force bases up the wazoo — Kirtland, Cannon, Holloman, plus White Sands Missile Range. Two national laboratories, Sandia and Los Alamos. A spaceport hungry for action. A state that not only understands the ways of the military but knows how to cater to it as well.

On paper, there’s almost nothing that doesn’t say this isn’t a marriage made in the heavens.

“It would change the face of New Mexico … I think we’d be a great home. I hope they see that also,” says state Economic Development Department Alicia Keyes.

This is all prologue to something that’s been flying, literally, oddly, below the radar. You may not know it, but the United States now has a Space Force. It’s a thing, with plans to stand up in earnest over the next year. And though Space Command and Space Force are not joined, there’s a sense that once the Space Command gets a home and gets entrenched, the Space Force gets moving in earnest.

As you might imagine, there are plenty of suitors to house Space Command. At least three states, California, Colorado and Alabama, were thought to have an early advantage, until a more thorough search commenced.

Initially, the headquarters operation would add about 1,000 jobs. But as outer space — but also the part of space, closer to Earth, where satellites fly — becomes more critical, more competitive and, perhaps, more militarized, it’s hard to believe such an endeavor wouldn’t grow like a weed. With that likely comes a space-based economy that makes way more sense than some of the state’s other Hail Mary attempts at luring a big employer.

But like all things involving the government and the military, this won’t be an easy process. The only thing more political than closing a base is opening or realigning one, and despite its protests to the contrary, there’s plenty of politics in the military. As a friend of mine who’d spent years in the Air Force once told me, “We’re as much a corporation as we are a military organization.”

Those tied to the state’s bid for Space Command HQ know what they’re up against.

“This is a hard process and there are states that have significant military facilities,” says Melinda Allen of the

New Mexico Partnership, a private nonprofit that helps businesses move to the state. “But New Mexico does have a great history of thinking outside the box. We’re creative and I think they might be looking to create something new from a blank sheet, where something doesn’t always have to be the way it’s been. That culture exists in New Mexico and is supported and gives us added flexibility.”

This is a long way down the road, perhaps, but exactly how the Space Command and Space Force grow and change could provide other opportunities. Years from now, will the Space Force be connected to the Air Force in the manner that binds the Navy and Marine Corps? Or would it become a completely separate entity, as the Air Force did when it spun away from the U.S. Army after World War II?

If New Mexico actually hosted the U.S. Space Command, wouldn’t it just make sense to be the home of a United States Space Force Academy?

All these possibilities have the insiders — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján and Keyes — almost agog at the possibilities.

Udall: “New Mexico has all the right ingredients for a booming space economy, and I’m actively advocating for the resources and support this industry needs to thrive in our state.”

Luján: “Picking New Mexico to host Space Force is a no-brainer, and I will continue to advocate, along with Governor [Michelle] Lujan Grisham and our congressional delegation, to bring its headquarters to our state.”

Keyes: “Do I think it would be a game-changer? It would be a watershed moment.”

New Mexico will know where it stands in the next few months. But it’s actually not about standing at all. This is space, and the discussion is about flight.

If Albuquerque’s number comes up, maybe New Mexico really will be over the moon.