Stacey Franklin Jones first heard rumblings of a new aerospace accelerator program last summer. Word of new opportunities spread quickly in what Jones, CEO of West Virginia-based aerospace company O Analytics, described as a tight-knit space startup community.
"From multiple sources, it sounded like it was going to be a really exciting program, and that it was going to be one that would be perfect for us in the stage that we were in," she told Albuquerque Business First.
Her company applied to be a part of NewSpace New Mexico's Ignitor program soon after, and O Analytics was accepted into the program's first iteration of 18 participants which was announced in October.
O Analytics joined 17 other companies from New Mexico and across the country as part of the aerospace accelerator program. Many representatives from those companies traveled to Albuquerque from places such as Mountainview, California; Buffalo, New York; and Jacksonville, Florida, to take part in a pitch competition and meet local aerospace experts.
For Jones, the relationships she found by meeting other scientists, founders and industry experts in Albuquerque helped reframe how she wants to grow her company.
"What we're finding is that there are a number of resources that are available in the state," Jones said. "It's not just funding per se. There are intellectual resources here in the labs at Sandia and also Los Alamos.
"Access to data and the imagery and the natural resources in New Mexico are equally as important to us as finance and the kind of 'intelligentsia' through the people who are here in New Mexico."
NewSpace New Mexico ran the inaugural Ignitor program out of its co-innovation workspace in Albuquerque, called the NewSpace New Mexico Launchpad. On any given day, you can find leaders and scientists from different companies using the slew of resources at the 8,700-square-foot facility, including a clean room, a thermal vacuum chamber, 3-D printers, soldering stations and individual work benches.
Click through the slideshow at the top of the page to see photos from inside the Launchpad.
Casey Anglada DeRaad, the founder and CEO of NewSpace New Mexico, said much of the equipment at the Launchpad comes from the needs of young aerospace companies, which often don't have enough money and physical space to purchase and use their own equipment.
And the demand for equipment has grown as more companies look to utilize resources at the Launchpad, which is located at 2420 Alamo Ave. SE in Albuquerque. Scott Maethner, vice president of operations and integration for NewSpace New Mexico, said the nonprofit currently has 11 user agreements signed for companies to use the Launchpad.
That number has grown from only three agreements prior to the turn of the year, he said.
NewSpace's Ignitor program, which was held in February, has been one driver of that increased demand.
"As they were here in town, a lot of them started talking to us about using our Launchpad and our facilities," DeRaad said about representatives from the Ignitor companies who traveled to Albuquerque as part of the accelerator program. "And we can connect them even beyond the facilities we have here. We're setting up a network of being able to get to other test equipment and lab equipment with the labs and other industry partners."
In order to purchase more high-tech equipment for aerospace companies to use, DeRaad said NewSpace is actively raising money. She said the nonprofit is targeting between $3 and $10 million.
While resources in New Mexico for growing aerospace companies extend beyond Albuquerque, DeRaad said NewSpace New Mexico's Launchpad can act as a base for companies to turn their concepts into products, to then eventually find more money and more customers.
