Spaceport will have two new tenants

Governor announces 20 more jobs will be at facility

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced on Thursday that two companies plan to move into Spaceport America, which is expected to bring over 20 more jobs to the New Mexico launch and landing facility.

TMD Defense and Space, an El Paso-based missile designer and manufacturer, will move 10 engineers and support staff to Las Cruces to start testing ballistic missiles at the spaceport this fall, the governor said at an event in the Rotunda of the Roundhouse. The company aims to perform between four and six test launches per year at the port.

White Sands Research and Developers,

an aerospace services company, is moving to the spaceport and plans to station almost a dozen employees there in the coming years, Lujan Grisham said.

“New Mexico’s aerospace industry is rapidly expanding,” the governor said on Twitter after the event. “New Mexico will continue to be a national and global leader in this innovative industry, growing the state’s economy and creating high-paying jobs.”

The governor also presented the winning University of New Mexico rocket team with the spaceport’s Chile Cup award. UNM competed against New Mexico State in the 2019 Spaceport America Cup.

The governor’s budget recommendations for the legislative session include funding for eight additional full-time employees at the spaceport, which is

the same request its CEO Dan Hicks made to legislators in October.

Hicks has called for funding to increase staff and boost infrastructure so the port is ready for Virgin Galactic’s first launch sending paying customers into space, which he has projected will happen this summer.

While Virgin conducts test flights, the facility has engaged with a number of other tenants, including Boeing, EXOS Aerospace and SpinLaunch.

That has helped increase the total number of spaceport-related jobs to around 250 from 50 in four years, Hicks said late last year.