![Atlas 5 Launches Mexicos Morelos-3 L-band Satellite]()
The successful launch of Mexico’s Morelos-3 satellite will enable Mexico to deploy its MexSat service despite the loss of an identical satellite in May.
![Boeing Postpones ILS Proton Launch of Mexico’s Centenario Satellite]()
A suspected problem on an unidentified Boeing-built satellite caused Boeing to postpone the scheduled April 30 launch of Mexico’s large Centenario mobile-communications satellite until the company is sure that Centenario does not have the same issue.
![Mexican Government To Award Licenses for Two Orbital Slots]()
The Mexican government is preparing to award satellite licenses in Ku- and extended-C-band frequencies at two orbital positions it has long held.
![SpaceX Leases Pad in New Mexico for Next Grasshopper Tests]()
The next phase of SpaceX experimental Grasshopper program, a key part of the Hawthorne, Calif., rocket maker’s attempt to build a reusable space booster, will be based at New Mexico’s Spaceport America under the terms of a three-year lease the spaceport.
![New Mexico Expands Spaceflight Liability Law]()
The bill extends the state’s existing commercial spaceflight liability indemnification to suppliers of companies who operate such vehicles.
![Ariane 5 Lofts Pair of Satellites for British, Mexican Governments]()
Launch was the 53rd consecutive success for Ariane 5, which has now gone 10 years without a failure.
New Mexico has done a lot for the fledgling suborbital spaceflight industry, primarily by building a $200 million spaceport from which Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture plans to begin taking paying passengers to the edge of space as soon as late 2013. To succeed, however, Spaceport America needs one more thing from the state: legislation to protect suppliers to companies like Virgin Galactic from lawsuits filed on behalf of customers killed or injured on suborbital flights.
![Virgin Galactic Pushing for New Mexico Liability Relief]()
New Mexico’s fledgling commercial spaceport is in danger of becoming a white elephant if the state does not extend a liability shield to manufacturers and suppliers supporting emerging private spaceflight operators like Virgin Galactic, say proponents who have twice failed to get legislation passed.
Virgin Galactic and the Spaceship Company — Virgin’s joint venture with Scaled Composites to build the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft — announced April 30 they are seeking to fill a combined 18 positions.
![New Mexico Candidates Grilled on Spaceport [NMpolitics.net]]()
Republican and Democratic candidates for New Mexico's governorship see Spaceport America as a potential economic boon but only one directly addresses the question of whether the state should continue to be a major underwriter of the facility, which will be the headquarters and operating base for Virgin Galactic's suborbital space tourism venture, the website NMPolitics.net reports.
![New Mexico Spaceport Feels Budget Pinch [Las Cruces Sun-News]]()
New Mexico's state assembly has dramatically scaled back state support for Spaceport America, the launch complex being built north of Las Cruces for the benefit of Virgin Galactic and others.
A proposal in the New Mexico state legislature that would have prevented space travelers or their families from suing manufacturers of parts and equipment used in spaceflights died in committee Feb. 7, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports.
Spaceport America said Aug. 26 that it has received a federal grant for the second year in a row to help fund spaceport infrastructure at the southern New Mexico launch and landing facility.
![Profile: Christine Anderson, Executive Director, New Mexico Spaceport Authority]()
The futuristic-looking terminal hangar rising from the New Mexico desert north of Las Cruces testifies to the success the state has had in making Spaceport America a reality. Championed by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and financed by a combination of state and local funding, a portion of which voters agreed to provide in the form of a sales receipts tax, the $209 million facility boasts a high-profile anchor tenant in Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s venture that aims to take paying tourists into suborbital space.
![With $1B Satellite Order, Mexican Gov’t Looks To Change Satmex Relationship]()
The Mexican government intends to use its three-satellite, billion-dollar contract with Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems to restructure its relations with Mexico’s commercial satellite operator, Satmex, by reducing or eliminating the government’s demand for free Satmex bandwidth, a Mexican government official said.
PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems on Dec. 20 announced it has signed a $1 billion contract with the Mexican government to provide three satellites — two for mobile communications and one for conventional fixed services — in a deal whose consequences for Mexican satellite operator Satmex were not immediately apparent.
![U.S. Begins UAV Surveillance Flights Along Texas-Mexico Border]()
WASHINGTON — Even from nearly 6 kilometers up, the synthetic aperture radar on the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can detect tire tracks, footprints, even a small cut someone made trying to slice through the tall steel wall that separates the U.S. from Mexico along parts of the Southwest border.
![Climate Monitoring | NASA Satellite Data Used To Track Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill]()
SAN FRANCISCO — NASA is marshalling airborne and space-based remote sensing instruments to gather data on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion of an offshore drilling rig leased by BP. The space agency is tracking the location of the slick and trying to determine the areas where the greatest concentration of oil poses a serious threat to coastal habitats.
Student-built experiments will have to wait until May 6 for a suborbital launch from New Mexico’s Spaceport America due to schedule conflicts among participants, organizers of the student launch event announced April 19.
![New Mexico Candidates Grilled on Spaceport [NMpolitics.net]](https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/spaceportamerica02.jpg)
