The Spaceport America Institute

At the opening of dinner last night at the ISPCS in Las Cruces, Steve Landeene, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, made a couple of announcements. One was the confirmation that the authority was completing a final agreement with Virgin Galactic for use of Spaceport America, as reported yesterday. The second was the formation of the Spaceport America Institute (SAI), a new non-profit organization. SAI is intended to be “catalyst for developing a reservoir of educationally valuable content from narratives, videography, digital images, operational data, and online exchanges.” Having an external organization, Landeene explained, gives it additional flexibility in obtaining funding for these educational efforts.