One giant leap for Midland International Air & Space Port

MIDLAND – Midland International Airport is now Midland International Air & Space Port, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved a commercial space launch site license for the airport.

Though there are eight other commercial spaceports with FAA licensing, Midland International Air & Space Port is the first primary commercial service airport certified by the FAA as a spaceport.

“The proximity of the airport to the spaceport allows us to take advantage of existing infrastructure, which in turn lowers cost to the operators and offers us a competitive advantage over operations at remote locations,” said Marv Esterly, the City of Midland’s Director of Airports.

XCOR Aerospace plans to launch suborbital flights from the spaceport by 2015, and Orbital Outfitters plans to build spacesuits for XCOR’s vehicles and operate a multi-use altitude chamber complex from the spaceport. Both companies will relocate from California.

The spaceport’s anchor tenant, XCOR, broke ground on its facility in August 2014, and Orbital Outfitters is preparing to break ground within the next two months.