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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

SpinLaunch Locates Mass Accelerator at New Mexico’s Spaceport America

12/17/2020
SpinLaunch, a company developing and testing a mass accelerator with the aim of launching satellites into space orbit using kinetic energy instead of rockets, is expanding at New Mexico’s Spaceport America.

The company, expected to spend $46 million of private money in construction and expansion over 10 years, will generate an economic impact of $239 million over that period of time statewide.

According to New Mexico Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes, SpinLaunch signed a lease at Spaceport America in 2019 and has since invested in test facilities and an integration facility. The company is now set to hire an additional 59 highly-paid workers and complete the build of its suborbital centrifugal launch system for its next phase of development. SpinLaunch expects to start test launches in New Mexico in 2021.

"Our technology enables a ten times reduction in the current costs and complexities of reaching orbit,” said SpinLaunch founder Jonathan Yaney. “As the number of rocket launches rapidly increases, SpinLaunch uniquely reaches space without releasing pollutants into critical layers of the atmosphere. We’re satisfying both the economic and environmental demands of a space industry experiencing exponential growth.”

“This is the first time in human history we have an alternative to rockets," Yaney explained. SpinLaunch qualified for job training assistance through the state's Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP). According to Yaney, the economic development initiatives were essential for a small company like SpinLaunch, as it works to innovate and bring to market a unique business. “SpinLaunch will grow into thousands of employees as we develop,” he added.

The State of New Mexico, through the Economic Development Department’s LEDA job creators fund, is supporting the expansion with $4 million, paid out in phases as SpinLaunch reaches economic development goals.

"Spaceport America is the next frontier for innovation," Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said. "It is a magnet for companies on the cutting edge, like SpinLaunch, and New Mexico is glad for their partnership with and investment in our state. I'm incredibly excited about this latest expansion at the Spaceport. We've only begun scratching the surface of what's possible in aerospace technology in Southern New Mexico."

"SpinLaunch is part of the growing community of businesses creating jobs and innovating new technologies at New Mexico's Spaceport America," Cabinet Secretary Keyes said. "We see the state's space cluster as an important economic driver to diversify the economy with higher-paying jobs in Southern New Mexico."

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