Facility Will Now Be Known As The 'Midland International Air & Space Port'

The FAA has issued a Commercial Space Launch Site License (Spaceport) for the Midland International Airport (KMAF) in Texas. The award was announced jointly Wednesday by XCOR Aerospace, the airport, and the  Midland Development Corporation.

Going forward, the airport will be referred to as the Midland International Air & Space Port.

“It’s an important day for not only Midland, but the nation, as we see the private space sector becoming a vital part of our future economy,” said the Midland Development Corporation Board Chairman Robert Rendall. “The spaceport is co-located with our commercial airport which will allow Midland to attract additional aerospace companies to the community,” he said. As a region with a strong history in oil and gas productions, the pre-existing workforce skills are easily transferable to aerospace, aviation and their supporting industries.

XCOR President Andrew Nelson commented that, “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.” The Midland International Air & Space Port is a significant part of that history and is home to many unique aviation and aerospace assets. Midland Mayor Jerry Morales said he is certain that, “The aerospace industry is critical to our economic diversity – innovation and breaking the mold have been, and will always be, embedded in our culture. Midland’s next frontier is space!”

The Midland International Air & Space Port worked closely with the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to obtain the spaceport License. Marv Esterly, Director of Airports, said, "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.” 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. 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. 

XCOR Aerospace was a pivotal partner in securing the spaceport License. The XCOR Lynx (pictured), a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered spacecraft that takes off and lands horizontally, will rocket customers to space and back. XCOR’s Commercial Spaceflight Research and Development Center Headquarters will be one of the first tenants at the Midland International Airport & Space Port pending the renovations of an existing hangar. “When we began this process we knew that integrating spaceflight activities with scheduled air service was unprecedented. Given our experience in air and space integration in Mojave, CA, we were confident it could be done. Because everyone on the team has been careful to hold the process to a high standard, it has taken a lot of time and effort to get here—we knew that might happen, which is why this was the first thing we started when we made the decision to locate our research and development center in Midland. Now that the license has been issued we can get on with the next steps of completing the hangar renovations and developing all the procedures we will need to integrate spaceflight into airport operations and airspace,” said XCOR Chief Executive Officer Jeff Greason.

The growth of the new spaceport is already underway. Orbital Outfitters, a space suit manufacturing company with a secondary line of business focusing on the production of full-scale space vehicle mockups, is the latest company to announce their move to the Midland International Air & Space Port. “Orbital Outfitters is extremely excited to see the Midland spaceport achieve this milestone,” said Orbital Outfitters Chief Executive Officer Jeff Feige. Orbital Outfitters’ new spacesuit manufacturing and altitude chamber complex will be located on the field adjacent to XCOR and will be one of the premier facilities of its kind in the world. Midland is poised to be an incubator and a collaborative environment for the aerospace community and looks forward to welcoming new companies to town.

FMI: www.midlandtxedc.com, www.xcor.com