Bay Area Edition | May 2023

DEVELOPMENT BLASTING OFF

DEVELOPMENT KEY: Future assembly/manufacturing Existing assembly/manufacturing

Future oce/lab

Phase 1 of the Houston Spaceport is nearing capacity, prompting ocials to consider developing Phase 2.

Parking/driveways

Future retail Future educational

Future hotel

Incoming roads

Runway

PHASE 1

HOUSTON SPACEPORT

Infrastructure built in LATE 2019

150 acres $24M cost for infrastructure

FACILITIES

1 Axiom Space 2 Intuitive Machines 3 Collins Aerospace

This planned facility will allow students to train in aerospace fields.

Aerospace training institute

PHASE 2

$80M cost for infrastructure (estimated)

Breaks ground within 12 TO 18 MONTHS

300 acres

N MAP NOT TO SCALE

and our expansion plans, they complement each other so nicely, and they

almost completely lled with aero- space companies, making expanding with Phase 2 necessary, Machuca said. “All of the sudden, we nd ourselves in this sweet problem, I’d say: We are somehow running low in oerings in terms of land,” he said. Phase 2 will be about 300 acres, and its infrastructure is estimated to cost $80 million. Expected to break ground in the next 12 to 18 months, Phase 2 will include parcels for other aerospace companies to locate to the spaceport. Machuca said spaceport ocials are in “serious conversations” with three such undisclosed companies. In addition, Phase 2 will include land for a hotel, restaurants and retail centers to make the spaceport a desti- nation. The spaceport will eventually include a terminal that will allow resi- dents to y on hypersonic jets to reach faraway destinations in a fraction of the time it takes today, Machuca said. Another unique project slated for Phase 2 is the Aerospace Institute. At the EDGE Center within Phase 1 of the spaceport, San Jacinto College and other higher education institu- tions help train students how to work in the aerospace industry. The institute will be a continuation of that idea and

involve more local colleges to make sure the spaceport has capacity to train the next generation of aerospace work- ers, Machuca said. During a presentation Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche gave April 26, she echoed the importance of partnering with colleges to expose stu- dents to the aerospace industry. “Here locally, [at] the spaceport, we have had such an increase in activity we have had the need for additional workforce [development],” she said. Today, Phase 1 includes Collins Aero- space, which opened in September 2022 and is helping develop NASA’s next generation of spacesuits; Axiom Space, which is under construction and will create the rst private space sta- tion and is also helping develop space- suits; and Intuitive Machines, which is also under construction and is respon- sible for building a lunar lander that is scheduled to go to the moon this June ahead of Artemis 2. The companies will bring as many as 1,800 jobs to the area in addition to $4 billion worth of contracted work over the next decade, Machuca said. Spaceport ocials expect to hold rib- bon-cutting ceremonies for Axiom and Intuitive Machines by the end of

SOURCE: HOUSTON SPACEPORT COMMUNITY IMPACT

are just again an indi- cator of how popular and interesting space is to so many,” said Keesha Bullock, Space Center Hous- ton’s chief communications and marketing ocer. Spaceport’s rapid growth Machuca never thought the space- port would grow so fast. Sitting in Ellington Airport, the Houston Spaceport was ocially licensed as the nation’s 10th spaceport in 2015. The idea behind it was to cre- ate a hub for aerospace companies to work together and with NASA to fur- ther the nation’s exploration of space. The spaceport truly got under- way when Phase 1 nished in late 2019. During this phase, at a cost of about $24 million, about 150 acres of spaceport land was lled with the infrastructure necessary to attract aerospace companies. Now, 3 1/2 years later, Phase 1 is

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spaceport is a hub for businesses furthering space exploration. “Today, the mission and the vision as a community, it’s being executed in a fantastic manner that I think chal- lenges every spaceport development across the nation,” Houston Spaceport Director Arturo Machuca said. Meanwhile, NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s museum, Space Center Hous- ton, is planning major upgrades that will give visitors a more personal look at astronaut training. The center is designed to show the public what occurs at NASA. “[The spaceport’s] expansion plans

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