New director takes the helm
McLaughlin stepped in after state auditor’s report accused former CEO of possible ethics violations in July
A native New Mexican with an extensive engineering and business background is leading Spaceport America.
The Spaceport Authority board has chosen Scott McLaughlin to be the new executive director of the complex near Truth or Consequences that Virgin Galactic hopes to turn into a hub for launching commercial suborbital flights.
McLaughlin, 55, has been interim director of the spaceport since July, when former CEO Dan Hicks was placed on administrative leave and later fired for what a state auditor’s report described as incompetence, gross mishandling of funds and possible violations of laws and ethics codes.
Before taking on the acting CEO role, McLaughlin was the spaceport’s business development director.
“I am very concerned with ensuring that the Spaceport Authority is being as transparent as possible and has good and proper governance,” McLaughlin wrote in an email. “My goal is to guide the organization into its new operational phase and ensure we are accountable to New Mexico taxpayers.”
Like any growing entity, the spaceport has been working through various phases of physical build-out and internal growth, McLaughlin wrote, adding the process can be chaotic.
State Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said in a statement McLaughlin is a skilled administrator who has shown he can collaborate with employees, the state and other business partners to ensure the spaceport operates safely and continues to drive job growth in Southern New Mexico.
McLaughlin takes over the spaceport as Virgin Galactic continues to pursue its maiden rocket-launched flight to the lower edge of space. The company has had problems delivering New Mexico’s first human flight to space, most recently in mid-February, when the SpaceShipTwo Unity showed electromagnetic interference in its systems, preventing the scheduled launch.
Technicians have determined electromagnetic interference during an attempted test flight Dec. 12 caused
computers to reboot just as rockets ignited to propel the smaller SpaceShipTwo from the mothership to the upper atmosphere. That flight was aborted and the two astronauts glided safely to earth.
The test flight has been rescheduled for May.
McLaughlin, who was born in Albuquerque and attended Las Cruces Mayfield High School, graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He has worked at several government agencies, including the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He also has spent time in the private sector with high-tech and engineering companies.
After graduating from college, McLaughlin established a radar design and manufacturing business in Colorado. He traveled the world installing, maintaining and marketing specialized wind radar systems. His designs support space launch, test ranges, aviation operations, weather service networks, atmospheric research, pollution studies and shipboard wind measurements.
NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Department of Energy and the military are among the agencies that use the radar systems and research.
In a biography, McLaughlin described having a lifelong passion for space and being influenced by the famed earthrise photo taken aboard Apollo 8 in 1968.
That photo gave people a perspective of their world never seen before, McLaughlin wrote.
“It is important for humanity’s future that more and more people see our planet in that way,” he wrote.