The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Spaceport Sweden in an alignment that will see increased cooperation in the commercial space industry.

Both spaceports have also entered into an agreement with Virgin Galactic, which recently entered into a 20-year lease agreement to build their global headquarters at Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic is also planning to use Spaceport Sweden as a launch site.

NMSA executive director Steve Landeene said that the deal was a reflection of increased activity and interest in commercial spaceflight all over the world.

“This MoU means that both spaceports can work together to develop and promote the commercial space industry,” Landeene said.

Located in Kiruna, Sweden, the European spaceport is the launch pad for sounding rockets, high altitude research balloons, a test facility for new aerospace systems as well as the world’s busiest civil ground station for satellites.

Vice chairman of Spaceport Sweden, Bengt Jaegtnes said that it is well on track and working well with spaceport America.

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“We feel we can continue to make great progress on regulatory issues and forward our business processes as we all work toward the goal of developing the commercial space industry,” said Jaegtnes.

Spaceport America received an FAA site operators licence in December, 2008 giving it the ability to conduct vertical launch operations.

On 31 December 2008, a 20-year lease agreement was reached between the state of New Mexico and Virgin Galactic to establish their world headquarters in New Mexico. The architectural firm of URS / Foster and partners is completing the final design for the terminal and hangar facility, with construction scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2009.

By Daniel Garrun.