New West Feature

‘Wacky’ New Mexico Town Still Waiting to Offer Space Flights to Tourists. But They’re Coming.

By Andy Stiny, 7-15-11

	Terminal hangar facility at Spaceport America, east view. February 2011. Photo courtesy of Spaceport America.

Two women chatted recently—yoga mats tucked under their arms—outside Rhonda Brittan’s Black Cat Books & Coffee in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

This town along the muddy Rio Grande, long known for its therapeutic mineral springs, revels in its image as an anachronistic byway where new age now melds with the old. And befitting a town which rolled the dice in 1950 and changed its name from Hot Springs to Truth or Consequences—fulfilling a challenge from the TV quiz show of the same name—the dice are now being rolled here again. At stake are the future economic successes of the town and state.

Spaceport America, a $209 million taxpayer-funded project enthusiastically backed by former Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration, is expected to launch spaceships in 2013 for private citizens to take sub-orbital trips, with a ticket to ride going for $200,000 per passenger.

“I think it’s a great fit for Truth or Consequences. It’s wacky. What a weird thing it is, like having Disneyland all of a sudden crop up in your neighborhood, so we will see what happens,” said Brittan, as she poured coffee and chatted with customers.

The town, with its historic downtown district and Route 66-era motor courts, has the feel of a snapshot from an earlier time. Think adobe and blue skies in sepia tone.

“We’re all here because we are not all here: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico,” read bumper stickers for sale in Brittan’s coffee shop.

“It’s got a funky retro thing going and it’s kind of eclectic. You know we are all bouncing along on the bottom here and to have a high flying—literally—Spaceport right next door is kind of a big contrast,” said Brittan.

Richard Branson’s Involvement

Terminal hangar, north view from the Spaceport’s Air, Rescue, Fire Facility. January 7, 2011. Photo courtesy of Spaceport America.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company will be the anchor tenant at the facility offering the space trips. The Spaceport will also house other aerospace companies.

There are a lot of people out there ready to pony up the $200,000 for the ride, says the Spaceport America website. So far, 45,000 people from 120 countries have signed up to fly high, according to Virgin Galactic.

The WhiteKnightTwo mother ship will carry a craft the size of a corporate jet to 50,000-plus feet before jettisoning SpaceShipTwo for its sub-orbital flight. The spaceship will carry six passengers and two pilots.

“Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows ... one side window and one overhead, so that, if you don’t want to float free in space, and you’d rather just remain in your seat, you still get a great chance to see the view,” said the Virgin Galactic website.

There are about five minutes of weightlessness in each two-and-a-half-hour flight.

The 10,000-by-200-foot-wide concrete runway for the space flights is expected to be completed by year’s end. The hangar-terminal, a 110,000-square-foot building, is about 80 percent complete.

“People will be curious about it. It’s a unique building,” Brittan said. “From the artist renderings it looks like a spectacular building and I think people would like to go there just to see the building, the facility.”

The Spaceport has its passionate corporate, business and government backers hoping it will put the state and Sierra County, with a $13-an-hour average wage (according to officials), into a higher economic orbit. Brittan is skeptical about that $13, believing it to be too high.

T or C (as New Mexicans call it) city commissioner Steve Green wants to preserve the town’s personality while hoping economic good karma will spread throughout the state like the concentric circles that SpaceShipTwo will make in its gliding landing.

“We don’t want to lose what we are. ... We are a town caught a bit in the ’50s and ’60s,” he said. “We should keep on doing what we do and when the Spaceport, God bless it, happens, let us prepare for the influx of people.”

And what have the economic impacts been so far from Spaceport construction, which has been plagued by construction and other delays?

Brittan said a lot of walk-in customers ask about the Spaceport. “Not everybody will tell you who will come in your shop they are here to see the Spaceport but I have had many come and ask me about it. You know they are curious already and there is really not much out there right now - it’s still under construction.”

“I hope the project is successful. It’s had fits and starts ... so we will see what happens. I’m looking forward to it,” said Brittan.

“People are asking about it all the time,” said Dianne Preisser, director of tourism for Sierra County. The project has gotten national and international press and Preisser said she gets inquiries by phone and email. “There’s a lot of interest in it.”

John Mulcahy, executive director of Sierra County Economic Development Organization, a nonprofit partly funded by local government and local businesses, agrees.

“We have had a lot more interest in New Mexico and Sierra County,” Mulcahy said there is interest from accommodation groups, housing developments and retail and there are more businesses downtown.

Lodging Options for Would-Be Astronauts

Glass installation on the main terminal, April 2011. Photo courtesy of Spaceport America.

Will the highest-heeled space travelers and their families who have $200,000 in disposable income to view the earth from space like to stay in downtown retro motels or funky hot springs resorts? (Green notes some have undergone big makeovers.)

Some say a very-end high resort would compliment the Spaceport and its wealthy tourist astronauts. Mulachy said there’s been some interest in building a high-end hotel, but said he couldn’t give much detail.

“I think it makes sense to have high quality everywhere,” he said. “Those people (the $200,000 passengers) are going to require a higher level of service than the average person.”

But for now, visitors may have to settle for what’s there along with a chain newcomer. “Holiday Inn Express is coming in, I believe, strictly because of Spaceport America,” Green said, Town leaders adding that the town approved variance to make that possible.

A 2005 study by the Maryland-based Futron Corporation and funded by the New Mexico Economic Development Department gave a rosy economic forecast but was predicated on launches starting in 2010, which clearly hasn’t happened.

The study predicted construction would begin in 2006 and be completed on 2008. “Virgin Galactic takes possession (of the Spaceport) after we reach certain construction mileposts,” Mulcahy noted.

“Based on this launch market forecast, Futron developed a forward-looking assessment of the economic impact of the spaceport in 2015 and 2020 based on Governor Bill Richardson’s vision for creating a new commercial space transportation and manufacturing cluster in southern New Mexico, along with key assumptions provided by the New Mexico state government,” states the study’s executive summary.

The Spaceport has “the potential to provide the basis for creating approximately $460 million of additional economic activity in New Mexico, with some 3,460 new jobs in 2015. These figures could increase to about $550 million of additional economic activity and 4,320 new jobs in 2020,” the study said.

Asked what sorts of wages were expected for the tourism-related jobs associated with the facility, which most studies have focused on, economic development director Mulcahy responded, “I don’t think we have established an hourly wage.”

Another study says there could be 562,000 annual visits to Spaceport America, with 250,000 of those visitors coming to T or C.

Preisser, who left the area for a while and recently came back, has noticed a difference. “It feels like the area is on the upswing. It has grown a bit.” She said that while gross receipts taxes are down statewide, they are up in Sierra County, and not just because of the construction.

Town commissioner Green believes the state’s more touristy destinations like Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque will benefit from funky town’s futurism.

“If they (tourists) are here they are also going to travel New Mexico. ... You can be sitting in Santa Fe at the plaza having a cup of coffee in three hours (travel time from T or C).”

Does Green believe there is any downside? “If you consider that to be the only horse in the race and you put all your money on that race ... this is new science,” he said. “Sir Richard Branson has said he and his family will be on the first launch.”

A Three-Hour Tour

The finished runway. Photo courtesy of Spaceport America.

Even though the Spaceport is not completed, an Albuquerque company, Follow the Sun, Inc. has started preview tours of the complex.

The twice a day, three-hour tours are being offered on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for $59 for adults and $29 for children under 12, according to the company website. The tours start from T or C and include historic highlights of the area and point out Ted Turner’s 350,000-acre ranch.

The tours start in T or C which is about 27 miles northwest of the Spaceport.

“T or C has always been an undiscovered gem,” said Green. Spaceport is funded by the state and by increases to the gross receipt taxes for Dona Ana and Sierra Counties, he said.

“I think we are going to get a lot of supporting businesses,” said Green, with welcome centers expected to be built in T or C and the the small town of Hatch, 38 miles to the south and famous for its green chiles.

For security reasons “you don’t take your car and family and drive out there you must board a bus at the welcome center,” said Green.

The town has a newly appointed interim city manager, Ellen Lindsey. “It’s going to help the city greatly ... it’s going to be a positive economic impact,” she said. “On the whole the county and the communities here are excited about the Spaceport and very supportive.”

Since new Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has repudiated many of former Gov. Richardson’s policies and appointments, there was some concern about how supportive she would be of the Richardson pet project.

But according to an Associated Press article, Virgin Galactic President and CEO George Whitesides discounted that at a recent media tour of the site.

“There are always challenges as you transition between administrations, and I think they’re going through some of those challenges right now, but overall we’re pleased, and we think things are headed in the right direction,” Whitesides told the AP.

What the Critics Are Saying

The planet Jupiter above Spaceport America.

The state’s largest newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal, highlighted the many problems the Spaceport has had in a recent editorial and in a May 12 story.

“Since February, there have been nearly $1 million in change orders. And that doesn’t include a $1.1 million change to an entryway for the $33 million futuristic terminal/hangar building requested by anchor tenant Virgin Galactic,” the editorial said.

“At least one subcontractor has walked off the job. A major contractor says it hasn’t been paid in months and its tab runs into the ‘multimillions.’ The terminal/hangar has suffered wind-related roof damage,” the editorial states.

The editorial further states the building inspectors have found code violations but the state’s Construction Industries Division refused to say what those violations are.

“That would be fine if this was a private deal with private money, but it’s offensive for a state-funded economic development project paid for with our tax dollars. ... One can only hope with a new captain at the helm, this ship will be ready for liftoff soon,” said the editorial.

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