President Trump re-launched the National Space Council Friday to coordinate America's military and commercial space efforts. The panel's first challenge will be getting a handle on everything that's going on - and changing - in what's becoming a new American space race.

Multiple states including Alabama, along with counties, cities, companies and universities are pouncing on space opportunities that didn't exist a decade ago. Other states, including New Mexico, are trying to come back from space bets made before the Great Recession that haven't worked out.

New in Alabama

In May, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a new law creating an Alabama Space Authority to seek space business opportunities. The law was designed to leverage what's already happening in the state.

The same month, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed a law limiting liability for companies that launch tourists into space. That law was passed to boost the prospects for a new spaceport Camden County is trying to develop on the Atlantic coast south of Savannah.

Both states have been in the space business before this year. Alabama is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, a key education center in the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and a supplier base NASA wants to expand to all of the state's 67 counties. Georgia claims 500 companies involved in space now, and Georgia Tech also funnels engineers into aerospace every year.

Nearby, Florida's Space Coast has transitioned from the NASA launch slowdown to growth as a commercial and military launch facility, California and Virginia are also launching payloads at government facilities, and Texas is testing rocket engines for Blue Origin and preparing to host a SpaceX launch site.

And that's just the marquee players.

A global market

"There's a global market," says Trevor Daniels of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. "People are doing research around the world. Everybody needs space for something."

Daniels works in government relations for space & rocket center Executive Director Dr. Deborah Barnhart, who was on a statewide committee that helped decide what Alabama's space authority could try to accomplish.

Huntsville has already taken its next steps. In addition to recruiting new space hardware companies like rocket manufacturer Blue Origin, the city is trying to certify its jetport as a landing spot for Sierra Nevada's mini-space shuttle Dream Chaser.

Huntsville doesn't want to be a spaceport. It wants to leverage its connections to Marshall to become a payload operations center.

"I think the big difference between building a spaceport and what we're doing with Dream Chaser is that we are leveraging existing assets, not building new ones," Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Lucia Cape said recently. "The feasibility study that was conducted and the permitting that is being pursued do require an investment on the front end, but they position us to tap into new markets for our payload development, integration, operations and processing expertise."

The space authority act passed by Alabama lawmakers this year reflects the evolving view. When it was first proposed several years ago, the bill was the Alabama Spaceport Authority Act. It didn't become law. The bill that passed doesn't have "port" in its title or plan.

Important distinction

"That was an extremely important distinction for us to make to all the stakeholders," Daniels said. "A spaceport is not the end game. Space is the end game. Space means a lot more than launching rockets and having a landing facility. Space is the immense capabilities we already have in Alabama."

The state's motivation is mostly economic, and that may be the key to looping in all of Alabama's space players. In addition to the big NASA center, Daniels cites Alabama's research universities and the technologies they can develop and spin off into Alabama companies. Also in the mix now is Airbus in Mobile. "Our cup runneth over in expertise and workforce," Daniels said.

Daniels points out that the state's space council faces some of the same challenges that Trump's council will face: deciding which technologies to support with investments, bringing instruments and services to market quickly (and safely) to make an impact and training a new generation of aerospace workers.

What's generating the excitement? First, cubesats have become a key segment of the space economy. These small satellites, launched into orbit by small rockets and from the International Space Station, give entrepreneurs, small companies and college students the opportunity to fly their own scientific and communications satellites. New companies like Vector Space Systems are emerging to build the smaller rockets that will launch these mini-satellites.

New Mexico's story

It's a different market than the one New Mexico saw when it opened America's first commercial spaceport 10 years ago. The vision then was regular flights into space for scientists and tourists.

Today, New Mexico's "Spaceport America" is a $220 million facility trying to pivot to the new space economy. It needs millions more in investment to make that change, and some in the state are reluctant to make another bet.

In a June 21 story headlined "Waiting for Liftoff," the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper quoted a scientist at Arizona State University saying, "When the spaceport first opened, tourism was the focus. The whole commercial space sector has really changed."

Dan Hicks, the facility's new executive director, summed up New Mexico's challenge now. "What I'm concerned about is 10 years have gone by and these other states are starting to catch up," Hicks told the newspaper.

New Mexico also had bad luck, and that's something that can reach out and grab any space project. The spaceport opened on the cusp of a national recession. Major client Virgin Galactic lost a test pilot in a crash that set its plan to fly space tourists. But Virgin Galactic says it will bounce back soon.

Other states, universities and companies were placing new bets while New Mexico's spaceport stalled. Being behind turned out the place to be. Now, those states say they're more than catching up. They say they're ready to move ahead.