NewSpace Nexus showcases Launchpad incubator, workforce focus to legislative panel

Casey Anglada Durad told the Legislative Finance Committee that NewSpace Nexus operates a Launchpad and collaboration center to support New Mexico's space startups and local workforce.

Anglada Durad, who said she is a twelfth-generation New Mexican and has a long career supporting space systems, described NewSpace Nexus as an organization that provides prototyping space, programming and connections so companies can accelerate innovation from New Mexico for the nation.

"We unite and ignite space," Anglada Durad said, describing the group's two-part approach of bringing the ecosystem together and providing resources to speed commercialization. She said the organization runs the Launchpad and collaboration center, offers a "Pathways to the Stars" curriculum and a New Space Igniter program, and has supported multiple companies that now appear on the group's materials.

Anglada Durad said NewSpace Nexus has been recognized by the New Mexico Economic Development Department as a New Mexico aerospace business incubator. She also told the committee that the New Mexico Finance Opportunity Fund (identified in the packet as OERF) has awarded funding to start a new space center; no dollar amount was specified in the transcript.

Anglada Durad said the incubator's mission emphasizes keeping workforce opportunities in New Mexico and connecting member companies to resources and partnerships. She provided slides in the committee packet and said committee members would have a chance to see the Launchpad in the afternoon.