Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Sun-News
By Diana Alba Soular
LAS CRUCES – Virgin Galactic recently relocated U.K.-based staff to Las Cruces, advertised some new hiring and announced its leasing office space off Roadrunner Parkway – all signs of an operational ramp up in southern New Mexico that will continue throughout 2012. The moves are in preparation for the start of space tourism flights from Spaceport America just north of Dona Ana County – possibly in 2013.
But they’re also the most tangible signs of permanent, local job creation since Virgin Galactic – billed as the world’s first commercial spaceline – first courted New Mexico with its suborbital spaceflight proposal seven years ago.
A handful of Virgin Galactic employees have either moved to Las Cruces or are en route as part of the initial team to be based in the city, said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides on Friday. And there are more transfers – and hires – to come, he said. “It’s still a relatively low number, but I think we’re going to see a big ramp up as we approach commercial operations,” he said. “We’re looking at different scenarios, but obviously we’ll be hiring a whole bunch of people locally and nationally.”
At least two Las Cruces-related job postings appeared recently on virgingalactic.com – the best place to watch for openings, according to Whitesides. An IT manager job was based in Las Cruces, while a regulatory compliance manager position was set to start in Mojave, Calif., where the company’s vehicles are being developed, and move to Las Cruces later, according to the postings. Both closed Dec. 31. But the company may have a couple of hundred local personnel once space tourism flights commence.
They’ll range from blue collar-type jobs to highly skilled, technical positions, according to Whitesides. Virgin Galactic plans to give preference to New Mexicans, he said. “We have to think through the exact process, but we want to hire locally when we can,” he said. “And when a skill is not available, we’ll look nationally, as well.”
Dona Ana County residents, through a self-imposed sales tax, are a big source of funding for the $209 million Spaceport America, construction of which is nearing an end in southern Sierra County. Many county residents who opposed the tax in 2007 questioned whether they’d get a big enough – or any – return on the spending.
State Rep. Andy Nunez, I-Hatch, has been an avid spaceport supporter and carried one of the major bills in 2006 that spurred its creation. But he’s expressed skepticism in recent months about the pace of the entire project. While the building up of Virgin Galactic manpower is a positive, the state needs to get “going and moving” on the spaceport operations. “I think eventually it will pay off, but I think things are moving a little (slower) than I want them to be,” he said.
Virgin Galactic starts paying lease money to the state once it occupies the spaceport’s terminal-hangar – expected in the first part of this year. It’s got a 20-year contract to rent the facility.
Pat Hynes, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, said the relocation of Virgin Galactic staff to Las Cruces is “really significant” because it means Virgin Galactic head Richard Branson is following through on his commitment to base operations from New Mexico. Plus, she said she knows many Virgin Galactic officials who are moving to Las Cruces with their families. “We have some really skilled people – very dedicated to this (spaceport) – coming here,” she said. “And Richard Branson is not making money yet. He’s still spending money.”
Spaceport America is located roughly 50 miles north of Las Cruces in southeastern Sierra County. Virgin Galactic officials said recently they plan to open a Las Cruces office sometime this month. It will be located, along with several other tenants, in the Green Offices – an 18,000 square-foot complex at 166 S. Roadrunner Parkway.
Mark Butler, a Virgin Galactic senior project manager who recently moved from the United Kingdom to north Las Cruces, will work at the complex, located between Desert View Elementary School and MountainView Regional Medical Center. Butler is mostly overseeing the outfitting the interior of Spaceport America’s terminal-hangar building to Virgin Galactic’s design – a process that will begin in earnest once the state formally turns over the keys after construction.
But two other main areas of focus are to flesh out a plan for the spaceflight customer experience and the nuts and bolts needed to carry out spaceflights from the spaceport, Whitesides said. “The folks either there or in process of going there are in the process of thinking through those three areas,” Whitesides said.
And, once the Virgin Galactic’s space vehicle development and testing wraps up in Mojave, Calif., the company’s vice president of operations, Mike Moses, will relocate to New Mexico, Whitesides said. Moses, a former top official for the U.S. space shuttle program, visited Las Cruces in recent weeks with the entire operations team.
“I’m just happy to see we’re to the point where they’re coming out here to begin their preparations for the start of operations,” said New Mexico Spaceport Authority Chairman Rick Holdridge. “It’s starting to happen, finally.”
