Aiming higher

It’s up, up and away for new Front Range Airport Manager Dave Ruppel, who hopes to bring flight possibilities to Adams County that are out of this world. Ruppel, who took over airport operations a month ago, oversees operations at the Aurora-located, 3,600-acre airfield that has potential for outward commercial growth. But it’s the site’s upward potential that has generated buzz since 2011, when Gov. John Hickenlooper requested that the federal government designate the airport “spaceport” status, which would allow for suborbital launches. “It’s the logical next step if Colorado wants to be an aerospace leader,” Ruppel said during a recent interview. “For us to continue to be competitive in the field, I think we need to do it.” Aerospace is big business in Colorado and the state is among the nation’s leaders in the field. The state has the third largest aerospace economy, with more than 400 companies supplying about $3.2 billion in annual payroll here. But the state is not among the nine currently-licensed spaceport states in the U.S. And Adams County Economic Development president and CEO Barry Gore said that seven other states are in the process of obtaining spaceport licenses. “Why not be able to offer the ability to launch (orbital transportation) here and get that business in Colorado?” Gore said. “We want to provide as much as possible in the state instead of seeing business going out of state.” Kristin Sullivan, the economic development manager for Adams County, seconds that. “In order for us to become the number one aerospace economy in the country, we need to make sure we have all options on the table and that the companies here have access to a spaceport,” she said. But it appears that Colorado is well on its way toward becoming a spaceport state. Ruppel said the state’s spaceport application has cleared two divisions of the Federal Aviation Administration and is a couple of months away from receiving final comments from a third. After that, the lengthy process will continue, with Ruppel hopeful that the FAA will reach a decision by years-end. But Ruppel doesn’t anticipate the agency seeing anything in the application that would hurt Colorado’s chances. “At this point, I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we’ve done everything that’s required, so I don’t see any showstoppers.” As for airport business outside of the spaceport application process, Ruppel said there is about 6,000 acres of space around the airport that is ripe for potential new commercial tenants. “There’s a lot of opportunity for development there and that’s exciting,” Ruppel said. “There’s a lot of things there that are just about ready to break.”