New Mexico’s Spaceport America peers up and into the future.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world — but its executive director has a portfolio of concepts to further develop the launch complex.

Already home to an array of commercial space industry tenants, such as Virgin Galactic, SpinLaunch, Up Aerospace, and Prismatic, Spaceport America is 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,” the organization boasts on its website.

Scott McLaughlin is an engineer, drawing upon a past of design and business marketing to help determine how best to develop Spaceport America, an inland location in the southern New Mexico desert that offers 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range. Space.com caught up with McLaughlin in an exclusive interview during the Space Foundation’s 40th Space Symposium to gain a perspective on the Spaceport America of now and a look at what’s glimmering on the horizon and ensuring the sprawling complex is a vibrant and vital part of America’s aerospace infrastructure.

McLaughlin: We’re attempting to be a site as equipped as we can and one that anticipates the market, trying to get ahead of that market. We have distinct sectors of the spaceport, but not so distinct that we can’t do various things at different times.

In our vertical launch area [VLA], we are looking at trials of objects that could detonate or fall. We’re focused on bringing water to that location and also have a facility that safeguards operations there — like cargo processing — from the sun, moisture, and weather. We are attempting to develop the VLA to be a true orbital vertical launch site.