Creating Space

My husband and I recently attended County Commissioner meetings about the proposed Spaceport America. I was heartened to see how much the New Mexico Spaceport Authority has already accomplished on the project. They have selected a site, and done preliminary surveys for its suitability. They have an agreement in principle with Virgin Galactic as their first anchor tenant. They have designs for hangars and placement for runways, and plans for water treatment. They have designed the Spaceport to cover mainly state-held land, and made agreements with the owners of the privately held land.

It’s not the first time New Mexico has looked to space. Werner Von Braun began here, before Huntsville, Alabama offered him incentives to relocate. White Sands Missile Range pours over a million dollars a day into the local economy. The state government first began looking at locating a commercial spaceport here in the 1990s.

Richard Branson’s plan for space tourism, and the other developments in commercial access to space, such as the X-Prize winners, the Rocket Racing league, and the growing commercial use of satellites, made the time look right for a commercial spaceport.

The area has several advantages for a spaceport — the weather is good all year around, the altitude and southern latitude both give a boost, there is ample land available — including one unique advantage. White Sands Missile Range has a controlled flight area above it all the way up. This means that commercial planes do not overfly the area of the proposed spaceport. In avoiding White Sands, they avoid the spaceport location as well.

Governor Bill Richardson, Spaceport Authority Chairman Rick Homans, and County Commissioner for Dona Ana County William McCamley have all dedicated significant time to creating the Spaceport. The next hurdle is a local option bond measure on April 3rd. The funding for the Spaceport must come from a selection of sources. The state of New Mexico has put in the majority. The federal government has been approached for some. The counties of New Mexico have been asked to raise the rest.

Passing the bond measure will not only fund the project, but also show that the local citizens believe enough to support it. The vote on April 3rd is the next step on the critical path to building the Spaceport.

If you live in New Mexico, or have influence in New Mexico, your support would be appreciated.

I decided to spend a day catching up on small tasks last weekend. I cleaned up some clutter, filed, did some laundry, deleted old email. The day was gone, and I hadn’t done everything on my list.

Time really is my most precious resource. Anything I want to do requires a certain portion of a day — or of a week, a month, a year, a lifetime. I really am finite. There are only so many things I can do before I reach my end.

Yet, strangely enough, since I started focusing on doing those things that I really care about, it seems I get more done than ever. I complete projects in short order. My friends have started commenting on how much energy I have and how much I do. I look back and see a growing pyramid of accomplishments, and feel good about completing them.

And it all started improving when I decided to spend more time doing what I enjoyed.

I recommend it as an experiment. Take a little time from something you feel you should do and don’t enjoy, and give it to something you enjoy and care about. See what happens. If you like it, go a little further.

And let me know what happens. If you’re like me, you’ll find that, following your own star, you do more of what’s important, with more energy, and what’s necessary takes care of itself.