FAA approves spaceport license for Midland International

A private aircraft takes off from Midland International Airport, Feb. 13, 2014. The airport has received its spaceport designation from the Federal Aviation Administration. A private aircraft takes off from Midland International Airport, Feb. 13, 2014. The airport has received its spaceport designation from the Federal Aviation Administration. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close FAA approves spaceport license for Midland International 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Midland International Airport is now Midland International Air & Space Port, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved a commercial space launch site license for the airport on Wednesday.

Marv Esterly, the city of Midland’s director of airports, received the license during an FAA Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning.

“I’m very excited and relieved at the same time knowing we passed a major milestone and made history that is something to be very proud of,” Esterly said via email after the meeting.

Though there are eight other commercial spaceports with FAA licensing, Midland International Air & Space Port is the first primary commercial service airport certified by the FAA as a spaceport.

“The proximity of the airport to the spaceport allows us to take advantage of existing infrastructure, which in turn lowers cost to the operators and offers us a competitive advantage over operations at remote locations,” Esterly said in a press release .

The spaceport business model is to start small and expand as needed while leveraging existing facilities before building new ones in order to keep costs low for commercial space companies, according to the press release. Over the next few years, Midland will work to adapt the current spaceport concept to accommodate other types of launch vehicles and the needs of aerospace companies as they arise.

Two space companies are planning to relocate to the spaceport: XCOR Aerospace and Orbital Outfitters, both from California. XCOR Aerospace plans to launch suborbital flights from the spaceport, and Orbital Outfitters plans to build spacesuits for XCOR’s vehicles and operate a multi-use altitude chamber complex from the spaceport.

“For over a century, Midlanders have been challenging frontiers and conquering world-changing innovations: the original Midland wildcatters to the now high-tech horizontal drillers; Jim Hall who revolutionized the automobile industry with his ground-breaking aerodynamic designs; and Leo Windecker who produced the first FAA-certified all-composite aircraft that influenced the way most aircraft are designed today,” said Andrew Nelson, president of XCOR, in a press release.

XCOR, the spaceport’s anchor tenant, broke ground for its future Midland home on Aug. 15, and Orbital Outfitters is preparing to break ground sometime within the next two months. XCOR plans to launch from Midland by late 2015.

The spaceport is a work in progress that began two years ago by the Midland Development Corp., a 4A sales tax-funded group that actively recruits companies to come to the spaceport, such as XCOR and Orbital Outfitters. Robert Rendall, MDC board chairman, said MDC is currently in talks with more companies.

“We are in constant contact,” Rendall said. “Today (Wednesday) the spaceport license announcement was made in D.C., and our (MDC) staff is having meetings with people today. So there’s a tremendous buzz in the space industry right now because we’re the first spaceport that is in a commercial airport context.”

While MDC took charge of recruitment, the airport was tasked with obtaining the spaceport license. Officials began the spaceport application process in September 2012. After approval of the environmental assessment portion of the application on March 21, the FAA had 180 days to approve or deny the license.

“Tomorrow is a new day and we still have our work cut out for us as Midland makes its mark on the commercial space industry,” Esterly said via email.