Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space

California Chases Out Another Company

17 Comments

XCOR Aerospace is moving to Midland, Texas. I wonder how many current employees are willing to make the move, and who is not? Must have been enough.

[Update a few minutes later]

I wonder where Midland Airport is in their spaceport status? Have they even started the process? The environmental assessment could be a delay. This is a blow to Mojave, but there’s nothing that they can do about it short of Kern County seceding from the state.

17 thoughts on “California Chases Out Another Company”

  2. Kern County seceding from California, while is some ways a very good idea, I understand would require approval of both the state legislature and congress. I can’t see the California legislature giving up their power to bully a rural county.

    Along that line, I wouldn’t mind a general secession of most inland counties from California.

  3. Sounds like a good deal, but they should have also approached Spaceport America and see if they were willing to match the offer.

    But if they need a launch license for their flight tests for Midland Airport it will run about $1-2 million. I wonder if the Midland Airport will pay for it or will they need to pay for it themselves.

    I wonder who will be next.

    Tom

  5. The mom and pop I worked for moved around 2000 from CA to WA. Both big time lefties that voted for Nader and Howard Dean.

    Remind me again… How does it affect the tax base when employers leave?

  6. Well, Midland and Mojave aren’t all that different in their immediate environment (flat desert). And Texas certainly has a lot to recommend it (hell, I lived in north Texas for over a decade). But if you like being within a couple of hours drive of mountains or the ocean or a very large metro area, then Midland won’t cut it; “middle of nowhere” is an understatement…4+ hours from anything.

    2. A 4-hour drive in Texas is equivalent to a 2-hour drive anywhere else. We have a different conception of scale.

      1. Edward,

        Yes, and if you are not doing 100 mph when you are driving in West Texas the DPS you pull you over for slowing down traffic 🙂

        Tom

      2. Tongue in cheek, yes.
        Tongue not in cheek, bullshit. I’ve done plenty of driving in west Texas AND in the Mojave desert; they’re very similar. In fact, some of the fastest driving I’ve ever done was Avenue E to 90th and then up to Edwards South Gate at 3:30 in the morning; if you weren’t doing at least 90 mph on those two lane roads, you would get run over. One of my first experiences on that two lane road was riding shotgun with a famous test pilot in the left seat, casually pointing out the sights to this SoCal newcomer with the classic one wrist flopped over the top of the steering wheel posture while passing long strings of cars that were “only” doing 85mph. Then arriving at South Gate and having your ID scrutinized by 19 year old 95 lb young women with M-16s. I never got pushed that hard (by cars or young women with machine guns) driving from Midland to El Paso, or up through Lubbock and Amarillo.

        Going the other direction, once you get into LA, it’s not all that much different traffic-wise than DFW or San Antonio or Houston.

    1. Will,

      Maybe they could join Nevada, then they could build casinos and get some real revenue flowing in 🙂

      Tom

  9. Thats a massive incentive, $10m total if all works out. What happens if they cannot meet their target of $12M payroll in five years ?

Comments are closed.