New Mexico’s Spaceport America.
Image credit: Spaceport America
Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world – but its executive director has a portfolio of ideas to further grow the launch complex.
Scott McLaughlin is an engineer, drawing upon a past of design and business marketing. How best to grow Spaceport America, an inland spot in southern New Mexico desert that offers 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range?
Spaceport America in New Mexico is home base for the SpinLaunch Suborbital Accelerator that has spun-up a number of successful test flights.
Image credit: SpinLaunch
Commercial space tenants
Already home to an array of commercial space industry tenants, such as — Virgin Galactic, SpinLaunch, Up Aerospace, and Prismatic – Spaceport America is a “rocket-friendly environment of 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, low population density, a 12,000-foot by 200-foot runway, vertical launch complexes, and about 340 days of sunshine and low humidity,” the organization boasts on its website.
Scott McLaughlin, executive director of New Mexico’s Spaceport America.
Image credit: Barbara David
Space.com caught up with McLaughlin in an exclusive interview during the Space Foundation’s 40th Space Symposium, recently held in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
To read the interview, go to my new Space.com story – “New Mexico’s Spaceport America looks up and into the future” – at:
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/new-mexicos-spaceport-america-looks-up-and-into-the-future
Maiden spaceflight of Virgin Galactic’s new Delta SpaceShip carrying research payloads is planned for summer 2026.
Image credit: Virgin Galactic
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