Courtesy of the Las Cruces Sun-News, by Steve Ramirez
LAS CRUCES — Gov. Susana Martinez admitted Thursday she was preaching to the choir — a standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 people attending the eighth annual International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. It was a pep talk of sorts, and Martinez urged commercial space flight industry leaders to keep going forward, keep going higher, in turning the fledgling industry into reality.
“This new industry, this new space age is about expanding our horizons,” said Martinez, the first New Mexico governor to speak at the symposium. “It is about creating new jobs, and infusing new scientists, new entrepreneurs.”
Martinez promised New Mexico will continue to add to its legacy as a pioneer of the aerospace industry. America’s rocket and missile program began at White Sands Proving Grounds in 1945. Since then, numerous space programs have come to the state, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, the Delta Clipper and Clipper Graham reusable rocket program, and more recently NASA’s Orion program, which plans to send a spacecraft to Mars.
“It is my goal that New Mexico is branded as a place where someone with a good idea can make it happen,” Martinez said. “Our rich heritage of space flight runs the gamut. “…Such a commitment should be a broad and long-term endeavor. We’re interested in economic development and will do what we can to support (commercial space flight).”
A panel of commercial space industry leaders said after Martinez’s keynote address that the day of full-fledged commercial space flight, with everyday people flying regularly into space, is quickly approaching. Spaceport America, in Sierra County, and it’s anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, have plans to begin commercial space flights for paying customers as soon as next year.
“We’ve taken this industry from theory to reality and practicality,” said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems. “In five years, we will have (space) vehicles that can regularly fly to the International Space Station, just like SpaceX has already done.”
Garrett Reisman, commercial crew project manager for SpaceX, added, “There will (also) be vehicles to use for other purposes. The cost per seat today is in the range of $20 million. It’s still going to be limited in the short term, where only the rich will be able to afford commercial space flight. But in the next 10-year time frame and beyond, … we need to drastically reduce launch costs where the everyday person can afford to fly.”
Commercial space flight has progressed from the days when people asked if it could happen to the most pressing question now, of when will it happen, Sirangelo said. The mandate is becoming clearer that commercial space flight has to become affordable, like airline travel is today. “We have got to do better than that if we’re going to realize the dream of science fiction,” said Sirangelo, referring to making commercial space flight affordable.
NASA officials also acknowledged the days of space flight limited only to governmental entities is over, and the development of partnerships between public and private sectors will likely become common as the industry grows.
Steve Ramirez can be reached at (575) 541-5452. Also follow him on Twitter: @SteveRamirez6.
