In This Article:
Nov. 10—Virgin Galactic's decision to cut its workforce and reduce its frequency of spaceflights next year will have an impact in New Mexico, as more than 70 of the employees who were laid off worked here.
The company said this week it is making the moves as it shifts its focus to producing its next generation of Delta ships.
But Spaceport America CEO Scott McLaughlin told the Journal that the news of Virgin Galactic's reorganization "doesn't change much" about how the Spaceport operates.
"Things are not that much different than they have been over the last several years where we've seen Virgin Galactic fly regularly and then take pauses as they reevaluate their systems and try and figure out how to get into a higher cadence," McLaughlin said. "So nothing really changes for us — the revenue stream should be the same. We haven't heard that there'll be any change in revenue from Virgin Galactic to the Spaceport. We have lots of other customers that we deal with on a weekly and sometimes daily basis."
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier announced the layoffs this week while reporting on the space company's third-quarter financial results, in which the company reported a net loss of $105 million despite the success of five commercial spaceflights to space after years of planning and research.
The company announced Wednesday it would cut roughly 185 employees across its operations. A letter sent to Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima further shows nearly 40% of those layoffs, or about 73 employees, are Virgin Galactic employees located in New Mexico.
Jeff Michael, a spokesman for Virgin Galactic, explained Virgin Galactic's restructuring as a shift "during this manufacturing process," in which the company is expected to funnel resources into completing its Delta ships. Virgin Galactic, according to documents presented during the earnings call, expects to begin flying Delta from Spaceport America by 2025.
Virgin Galactic jobs at the Spaceport that are now being cut include a variety of technician, engineer and maintenance roles, the document obtained by the Journal shows.
The Spaceport, whose anchor tenant is Virgin Galactic, has a handful of other tenants, including two that are working on high-altitude platform systems, or HAPS, designed to fly above 60,000 feet for a "whole bunch of activities that are being looked at by NASA ...which include surveillance, communications, 5G cell phone service — all kinds of things," McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said he doesn't expect terms to change for the lease agreement with Virgin Galactic, instead saying the Spaceport is already in early discussions with Virgin Galactic to keep its operations in southern New Mexico after its current lease ends in 2033.