{"id":52019,"date":"2020-08-21T14:08:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T20:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-altitude-airships-company-picks-new-mexico-for-base\/"},"modified":"2020-08-21T20:08:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T20:08:55","slug":"high-altitude-airships-company-picks-new-mexico-for-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-altitude-airships-company-picks-new-mexico-for-base\/","title":{"rendered":"High-altitude airships company picks New Mexico for base"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Switzerland-based Sceye picked the state as its U.S. base for stratospheric flights for its high-altitude airships.<\/span>Sceye<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Switzerland-based Sceye picked the state as its U.S. base for stratospheric flights for earth observation and communication after spending more than $50 million in developing the stratospheric airship and building infrastructure, state officials said.<\/p>\n

Officials said the company founded by global humanitarian Mikkel Vestergaard will locate its manufacturing operation in the state and will create 140 high-paying manufacturing and engineering jobs.<\/p>\n

The move comes as Sceye works to develop a fleet of airships that could be parked for long periods of time about 65,000 feet (19,812 meters) in the air. Once in the sky, the blimp-like airships would monitor crop conditions, climate change, and human trafficking. The aircraft also may improve communication connections between drones, aircraft, satellites, and expand broadband.<\/p>\n

The airships are controlled by pilots on the ground who move them as weather and the Earth\u2019s atmosphere changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico has been home to many innovative companies and Sceye\u2019s approach to broadband and methane monitoring is game-changing,\u201d Keyes said. \u201cIt\u2019s these types of disruptive companies that will drive economic development in the state for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

At New Mexico\u2019s Spaceport America, a company called SpinLaunch is testing technology that would launch satellites into orbit with kinetic energy. Virgin Galactic has 150 employees in the state as it prepares for commercial space flights.<\/p>\n

While preparing for more airship flights, Sceye is negotiating a deal to provide broadband access to the Navajo Nation and other underserved areas.<\/p>\n

Keyes said for years the state has struggled with building an infrastructure on the ground to bring broadband to rural areas. \u201cThis could eliminate that problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (COVID-19) emergency has amplified the need for universal access to the advantage of a networked world,\u201d Vestergaard said in a statement. \u201cThere is a massive gap between the connected and unconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keyes said Sceye will start with five airships and could expand to other areas of the country.<\/p>\n

In January 2019, Vestergaard, former CEO of global public health companies Vestergaard and LifeStraw, stepped down from those companies to exclusively focus on Sceye\u2019s expansion. Sceye was founded in 2014.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the company has conducted research and development of its technology at Roswell and Moriarty, New Mexico, airports.<\/p>\n

Last year, the state gave the company a $2 million loan to help it to rebuild following a windstorm that caused extensive damage to its hangar and airship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Switzerland-based Sceye picked the state as its U.S. base for stratospheric flights for its high-altitude airships.Sceye The Switzerland-based Sceye picked the state as its U.S. base for stratospheric flights for earth observation and communication after spending more than $50 million in developing the stratospheric airship and building infrastructure, state officials said. Officials said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52019"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}