Spaceport America Master Plan
Project Details
Location
Las Cruces, NM
Client / Owner
New Mexico Spaceport Authority
Focus Areas & Services
Preparing for the future of space exploration
Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. The FAA-licensed launch complex is situated on 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. It has a rocket friendly environment of 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, low population density, a 12,000-foot by 200-foot runway, vertical launch complexes, and about 340 days of sunshine and low humidity.
Related Projects
As a valued partner with NASA since the 1960s, RS&H started the project with a contract for HVAC repairs, which blossomed into laboratory repairs, laboratory design, and a master plan that would consolidate the ARES division from six buildings down to two.
NASA Kennedy Space Center entrusted RS&H to vet the feasibility of and design modifications to the Space Launch System (SLS) Mobile Launcher. The 355-foot-tall mobile launcher is designed to support the assembly, testing, check out, and servicing of NASA’s SLS rockets, as well as transfer the rockets to the pad.
RS&H designed a shaker support stand for the Orion random vibration shaker test. The design incorporates a heavy duty commercially available gantry crane as the primary shaker support stand structure.
