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A new five-year economic impact study shows positive overall growth for Spaceport America.
The study, Economic Impact of Spaceport America, 2019-2024, shows that the spaceport’s economic output equaled $239.8 million in 2024, which is up from $72.3 million in 2019.
Kramer Winingham, program director with the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University and one of the authors of the study, said that the study shows that the general economic trajectory of the Spaceport is “strong.”
He said Doña Ana County has benefited the most because most of the people who work at the Spaceport live in Doña Ana County.
The report shows that direct jobs grew from 242 in 2019 to 313 in 2024. But the study also takes into account that those 313 jobs lead to a ripple effect job-wise because service-sector and other jobs are created as a result of the new 313 jobs. When the ripple-affect is accounted for, the Spaceport resulted in 790 jobs in 2024, up from 396 jobs in 2019.
Scott McLaughlin, executive director of the NMSA, the state agency that designed, developed and oversees operations at Spaceport America, told the Bulletin that even with the Spaceport in Sierra County, Doña Ana County sees significant benefit because the majority of the employees living in Las Cruces.
“Each county gets a different benefit from the Spaceport,” he said.
This study is a follow up to a one-year economic impact report the Spaceport sponsored in 2022. McLaughlin said he “considers this an obligation of the Spaceport reporting back to its stakeholders.”
The Spaceport’s taxes also also grew from $7.3 million in 2019 to $24.4 million in 2024.
The 2024 year was not the Spaceport’s best year. The year 2023 was with $266 million in total economic output.
McLaughlin said the reason for the decrease from 2023 to 2024 was likely due to Virgin Galactic shifting its to focus on building two new spaceships in Mesa, AZ.
“That was where we got a lot of economic activity in 2023,” McLaughlin said of Virgin Galatic flights.
Virgin Galactic says on its website that its new ships will be ferried to Spaceport America, tested and commercial operations will begin in 2026.
McLaughlin said there is a new development happening in space-related technology that he believes will bring even more economic activity to the Spaceport. He said change is coming that will enable the Spaceport to host inland orbital launches for satellites.
McLaughlin said that, currently, orbital launches only take place from coastal launch areas because if a rocket malfunctions, it can self-implode over the ocean.
“Every time they launch from the cape, they have a calculated debris field (over the ocean),” McLaughlin said.
But, he said, the need to implode a rocket over the ocean hardly ever happens anymore. He said rocket technology has become “very reliable.”
So, within another 5-10 years, McLaughlin predicts that rocket technology will adapt to allow a rocket to return to earth, instead of self-imploding, if it can’t make it to orbit.
That would enable orbital rocket launches from Spaceport America, McLaughlin said.
“Then the Spaceport could be an orbital launch site and be much more of an enabler of space companies throughout the region,” he said.
McLaughlin said economic impact at the Spaceport will also likely increase once Virgin Galactic is “back in business” with its two new ships.
