ALBUQUERQUE—A Colorado-based aerospace company that successfully launched two commercial payloads at New Mexico’s spaceport has signed a 10-year memorandum of understand to continue using the site.
UP Aerospace president Jerry Larson said Wednesday no contract is involved but the agreement reaffirms the company’s plans.
“It’s more of a gentlemen’s agreement, a handshake deal to show we intend to get this done,” Larson said. “We made the New Mexico commitment a long time ago. It was kind of a foregone conclusion that we are going to keep moving forward.”
UP Aerospace, which recently moved its headquarters from Farmington, Conn., to Highlands Ranch, last April became the first company to successfully launch a suborbital flight from Spaceport America, the state site being developed in Sierra County.
Among the payloads on that rocket were some cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer “Scotty” on the television series “Star Trek,” and of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper.
The company logged another successful launch in December, though details of that commercially sensitive mission haven’t been disclosed. Additional flights are planned through the second half of this year, beginning in June.
“UP Aerospace has already proven the value of Spaceport America to the aerospace industry and they’re in a perfect position to enlarge their role,” New Mexico spaceport director Steve Landeene said in a news release.
Larson praised New Mexico’s commitment to the spaceport project at all levels of government, calling it “the ideal site” for commercial space development.
“Absolutely, we believe Spaceport America is the right place to do commercial innovations in space, and we have surveyed all the other sites around the country,” he said.
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