Homans resigns from NM spaceport job

Just a couple of months after becoming the executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Rick Homans announced today that he is resigning to take a job in the private sector. Homans, who stepped down as the Secretary of Economic Development for the state to take over as head of the authority after the untimely passing of former executive director Lonnie Sumpter earlier this year, had planned all along to be only an interim head of the authority. However, he said he had an opportunity to take a job with an unidentified “environmental technology company” that plans to set up its headquarters in New Mexico, an opportunity that “arose imperatively”. Homans had been a major supporter of what has become Spaceport America since shortly after becoming the state economic development secretary in 2003, working with Gov. Bill Richardson and other state officials to lure Virgin Galactic, the X Prize Cup, and other space ventures to the state. A replacement for Homans has not been announced.

1 comment to Homans resigns from NM spaceport job

  • Peter Shearer

    Jeff Foust,

    This doesn’t pertain to this post but wasn’t sure how else to tell you…

    Bigelow Aerospace had a huge success with the launch and orbit of Genesis 2 on June 28th. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19492876/

    And…

    There is an article on MSNBC regarding Virgin Galatic… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19586656/ regarding the interest that has yet to slow down. Even though the spacecraft has yet to be unveiled… Even though customers have no idea what it will look like, when they will find out, when their flight will actually be… And despite the lack of any significant advertising (that I’ve noticed outside of my favorite space websites that the normal person doesn’t frequent)… Despite all this… Interest and deposits have not slowed down. VERY good sign.

    On page two… The journalist writes “Space travelers will then be rocketed to around 360,000 feet (109,728 meters) in altitude, some 68 miles (109 kilometers) high. The pilots will glide the spaceship at just over stall speed to allow maximum time, around 30 minutes, for passengers to press their faces against large windows that offer a view of more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) in any direction.”

    This is a rather dubious statement consider the lack of atmosphere at 360,000ft to “glide just over stall speed.” I would also think that the 30 minutes assertion is just a LITTLE off. 6 or 7 minutes seems to be best average any journalist has reported.

    What do you make of this Jeff? Are journalists ignorant, lazy (in their research) or full of S**T? Perhaps you could make a post about both of these items and share your thoughts?

    ~Peter

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>