The Texas Space Commission is a new organization whose goal is to encourage aerospace companies to contribute to the state’s economy. NBC 5 toured companies across Central Texas and spoke with the commission’s new executive director.
Space is more crowded than many people think. There are roughly 10,000 satellites orbiting the Earth and traveling through space. What happens when one needs repair? Firefly Aerospace aims to fill that business opportunity.
“Sending a satellite into space is really expensive. It takes a lot of fuel, a lot of equipment, and it costs millions of dollars to send a satellite into space,” said Jeff Duncan, Firefly’s director of mechanical engineering. “If it runs out of fuel, if it runs out of life, if it runs out of batteries, it’s damaged and it’s worthless.”
The Cedar Park, Texas-based aerospace transportation company employs about 700 people and acts like a road crew, repairing damaged spacecraft or towing them to new locations, all while 1,200 miles above the ground.
NBC 5 met with Duncan at his “Rocket Ranch” in Burnet County.
Firefly is one of a growing number of companies in the space industry — Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are already based in Texas — and the state Legislature approved, and Gov. Greg Abbott last year, creating the Texas Space Commission to regulate and encourage the space industry.
Texas’s appeal to space companies lies in its major universities that train high-tech talent and the vacant land on the outskirts of big cities. Many of Firefly’s rocket tests require locations away from residential areas so it can start its engines without attracting noise complaints.
For Duncan, that means more jobs closer to home.
“There’s so many great things happening in Texas right now that we’ve never had before. When I graduated from college, there were no jobs like these, so it’s really great to see all this happening here in my hometown,” Duncan said.
Texans are not only taking part in spacecraft in orbit, but also in ones bound for the moon: Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander just departed on a test flight with NASA and is scheduled to head to the moon later this year.
The company’s spacecraft program director, Ray Allensworth, is one of many University of Texas at Austin graduates currently working for the company.
“Historically, the options have been pretty limited — a lot of it has been California, Florida, Colorado, for example,” she said.
“This project gives people another option for where they can live and work on something they’re passionate about, and it also means they can stay in the schools, communities and environments they grew up in,” Allensworth said.
The Firefly lunar lander is equipped with 10 scientific instruments that will allow it to study the moon’s dusty surface in detail, with the goal of revealing what really happens on the “dark side” of the moon.
“This mission is especially important because the United States is relearning how to go to the moon, and if you look at a lot of the work that’s going on in space right now, the goal is ultimately to have multi-planetary human habitation and space manufacturing,” Allensworth said.
Texas has a long history with the federal space program, and the formation of the Texas Space Commission indicates that this industry will be here to stay for many years to come.
“We use satellites almost every day, even if we don’t realize it. If you have an Apple Watch, if you have a cell phone, you’re interacting with satellites in some way,” Allensworth said.
How does the Space Commission work?
NBC 5 spoke with Norman Garza Jr., the new executive director of the Texas Space Commission.
In December, the Texas Space Commission’s board of directors will develop a strategic plan to guide it for the next few years. The board will be made up of nine members, three of whom will be appointed by the governor, three by the lieutenant governor and three by the state speaker.
“Hopefully, the strategic plan will also be a kind of playbook,” Garza said.
Garza said the commission has two goals: to keep companies already in Texas in the state and to attract new companies, and the commission has set aside $150 million in incentives to encourage businesses to move to the state.
Much of Texas’ space industry revolves around the Johnson Space Center. Garza previously worked at the adjacent Texas A&M System’s Specialized Laboratory for the space industry. He worked on a similar program to promote the state’s semiconductor industry. In the coming months, his board will decide what grants will be awarded from the $150 million fund and the guidelines for obtaining them.
“There have been no conversations” about specific Texas laws regulating space, he said. He told NBC5 that the rules on who controls space are in flux because so many countries and companies are involved.
Now, the committee plans to act more like an economic development organization.
“To make sure that the Texas landscape is attractive enough that companies that aren’t already here will consider coming here, planting their flag and joining the commercial space exploration network,” he said.
Part of that is down to a historic $30 billion state budget surplus, generated by tax revenues from a booming economy. Garza said Texas has “the cash to inject” into the space industry, putting it in a position to beat rival states like Florida, Colorado, Alabama and California.
