New Mexico Delegation News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján, Deb Haaland and Xochitl Torres Small urged Department of Defense Acting Secretary Patrick Shanahan to consider New Mexico as a host for co-locating the Space Development Agency headquarters and to fully utilize the state’s existing core research and development space assets.
Shanahan recently noted that the DoD must make changes to its research, development, and acquisition processes to protect U.S. vital interests in space. Key among these changes is the establishment of a Space Development Agency (SDA).
In their letter, the members outlined New Mexico’s significant space R&D community and critical assets, including the state’s two National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories, hundreds of private space industry leaders, large technical workforce, Spaceport America, the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Advanced Systems and Development Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office.
“As you stand up the SDA, we urge you and other senior leaders to look to the state of New Mexico as a host for co-locating the agency headquarters and to be your lead entities for implementing the space R&D policies you directed,” wrote the lawmakers.
“Specifically, we urge you to retain and strengthen each of our nation’s existing core R&D assets and, most importantly, to ensure that the DoD is not reinventing the wheel nor unnecessarily moving pieces around at the expense of limited taxpayer dollars.”
“The Sp-RCO, in particular, provides the Department with a tremendous opportunity to utilize the office’s unique acquisition authorities to develop and transition space systems quickly towards a more disaggregated space architecture,” the lawmakers continued.
A copy of the letter is available here and below.
Acting Secretary
U.S. Department of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
- Hundreds of private space industry leaders;
- Large, highly technical work force and linkages to some of the most cutting edge scientists and technologists in the nation
- Two National Nuclear Security Administration laboratories;
- Space and Missile Systems Center’s Advanced Systems and Development Directorate;
- Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate;
- Space Test Program;
- White Sands Missile Range, the largest overland testing facility in the United States;
- Spaceport America, a Federal Aviation Administration licensed spaceport with inland launch and potential point-to-point transportation from orbit;
- Starfire Optical Range;
- Aerospace Data Facility-Southwest;
- Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Sp-RCO)
Heather Wilson, Secretary of the Air Force
Fred Kennedy, Director of Space Development Agency
John Raymond, Commander of Air Force Space Command
