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New Mexico, We Have Lift Off
by Jeany Llorente-Ontiveros

Budding aerospace industry is good for the economy

It’s been said that if you build it, they will come. The phrase from the late 1980s flick “Field of Dreams” might be trite, but it rings true about the growing aerospace industry in New Mexico.

New Mexico is building “it” – the Southwest Regional Spaceport – and anticipating that “they” – hundreds of space enthusiasts, visitors and entrepreneurs – will come.

The 27-acre spaceport is being built in Upham, N.M., 25 miles south of Truth or Consequences and 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces.

As hundreds of people make the journey to southern New Mexico, the state is optimistic that the influx will generate economic development.

“Thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment will be created in the next 20 years as the private sector develops new commercial markets in the space industry in New Mexico,” Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans recently said in an interview.

According to an economic development study prepared by NMSU’s College of Business for New Mexico’s Economic Development Department, the total economic impact of the spaceport project will generate more than $1 billion, $500 million in earnings and more than 2,800 sustainable jobs per year over the next five years.

Tony Popp, an economist with NMSU, said with three companies – UP Aerospace, Starchaser and Virgin Galactic – already confirmed to have operations at the spaceport the economic ripple effect will take flight.

“We assume that they will have suppliers and firms that will be helping them and that they will at least have offices here, if not, actually show up and work here,” Popp said.

In addition, the researchers imagine that the tourism sector will boom as well. Not only will people flock to the area to partake in any space activities, but they will also explore other locations throughout the Land of Enchantment.

“This is real. It’s not a pie in the sky kind of deal,” said Jim Peach, also an economist from NMSU. “Like any new venture it’s a risky proposition, but I think it’s a chance that the state should take.”