The $218 million Spaceport America development in southern New Mexico has a new tenant.
Spaceport executive director Scott McLaughlin confirmed to Business First that a company is building a hangar, adding that a lease was signed in early 2022.
The lease is for about nine months, according to New Mexico Spaceport Authority spokeswoman Alice Carruth.
While the name of the tenant has yet to be confirmed, building permits and interviews conducted by Business First suggest it may be drone developer Prismatic Ltd, which is part of large defense firm BAE Systems based in the United Kingdom.
Prismatic hired Sandy Jones Contractor for the new hangar at Spaceport America, according to Sandy Jones, who owns the Williamsburg construction company. A building permit for a Spaceport project has a phone number for Sandy Jones Contractor and lists "Prismatic" under the property owner section.
"We're the general contractor building the building ... the electrical, the HVAC [and] the lightning protection," according to Jones, who said he thinks the hanger was about 9,000 square feet. "We probably put the building up in a couple of weeks. We're finishing up the electrical and stuff on [the building] now."
Another Spaceport building permit lists contact information for Indiana-based Bowers Engineering Services, which certified a hangar project for Prismatic. Likewise, the permit is for a project titled "Spaceport America PHASA 35 Flight Trial 2022," which is similar to the name of a solar-powered drone from Prismatic.
BAE spokesman Tim Paynter confirmed that both of the building permits were for Prismatic. Prismatic was founded in October 2011 by Paul Brooks and Jonathan Dixon, according to its website. In September 2019, BAE Systems's announced its acquisition of Prismatic.
BAE Systems is a multinational aerospace and defense firm based in London and Farnborough, Hampshire, in England. The company says its workforce of 89,600 people spans more than 40 countries. BAE's U.S. subsidiary, BAE Systems Inc., employs more than 34,000 across operations in America, Sweden and the U.K. with 2021 sales of about $12.5 billion, according to the company.
Spaceport America lists four tenants on its website — key among them being Las Cruces spaceflight-tourism company Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE). HAPSmobile AeroVironment, UP Aerospace and SpinLaunch are the other tenants.
Back in March, during a board meeting for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, McLaughlin said “we are working on some long-term leases for a couple of tenants that we're under NDA."
Spaceport America has vertical and horizontal launch space, meaning it can facilitate rocket launches as well as flights for vehicles that need a lengthy runway. Last October, the Spaceport announced that AeroVironment was "looking to add permanent infrastructure at the vertical launch area."
In total, the Spaceport near Truth or Consequences encompasses more than 18,000 acres with support for certain types of manufacturing including motors and payloads.
