Orbital Outfitters brings the moon to Midland’s Spaceport

MIDLAND – Spaceport Business Park already has two tenants — XCOR and Orbital Outfitters.

The development of Spaceport Business Park will include the $3.2 million Midland Altitude Chamber Complex (MACC), which Orbital Outfitters CEO Jeff Feige described as a level of infrastructure to do something that no one else in the world was doing.

Orbital Outfitters has broken ground on its 17,660-sf test, manufacturing and headquarters facility on the grounds of the Spaceport Business Park at Midland International Air and Space Port.

The new facility will include state-of-the-art manufacturing and development capabilities into which the company will be moving its space suit development and manufacturing activities.

The MACC will feature altitude chambers of different sizes and capabilities including a small equipment chamber, a two-person chamber for suit testing and evaluation, and a large cabin sized chamber that can accommodate as many as ten people or an entire vehicle cabin mockup.

The new Orbital Outfitters facility and the MACC are anticipating beginning operations in first quarter 2016.

Midland will be “one of the premier sites in the world” when it comes to aerospace, according to Keith Graf, director of the governor’s Aerospace, Aviation and Defense & Texas Military Preparedness Commission.

See previous story, One giant leap for Midland International Air & Space Port.