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Lidnsay O'Brien Quarrie, chairman of Space Sciences Corp. of Lemitar, N.M., talks about a saucer-shaped aircraft, the MOLLER M200x, on Tuesday at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum during the International Symposium for Personal and Commerical Spaceflight. Quarrie hopes the aircraft will become part of the Spaceport America experience so that people who do not have the finances to take a trip up in space can enjoy another version of flight.

LAS CRUCES Wayne Hale, a former space shuttle program manager who now works as a consultant for a commercial space flight company, urged supporters of the fledgling industry Tuesday to continue to push for state legislation that will allow companies to conduct business in New Mexico.

"Here we are 100 years later, and we're at the verge of the commercial flight industry," said Hale, referring to time that has passed since the invention of the airplane to the beginning of commercial space flight. "... I encourage New Mexico to pass informed consent legislation that will enable the commercial spaceflight industry to go forward. Otherwise, you may have a sizable investment already made that goes for naught."

Hale is a consultant for Special Aerospace Services in Boulder, Colo., who was the keynote speaker at a community partnership luncheon, the preliminary event to the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, which begins today at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum. Hale retired from NASA in 2010 as the deputy associate administrator of strategic partnerships in NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate.

Before that, Hale served as the space shuttle program manager and the shuttle launch integration manager. He was a space shuttle flight director for 40 shuttle flights.

Hale, speaking to gathering of about 60 people at the luncheon, said although New Mexico's legacy in the aerospace industry is long and heralded, other states and

"There is no doubt there is a market, there is an industry," Hale said. "There has been a pent-up demand, there is a clearly a market among the very rich for commercial space travel, and clearly there is a market for research and science.

"...Texas would love to have a spaceport, Virginia would love to have a space tourism industry there. Even California has laws for informed consent."

The New Mexico Legislature has enacted law that provides informed consent to operators, such as Virgin Galactic, at Spaceport America in Sierra County. However, similar legislation that would have also applied to suppliers of commercial spaceflight companies never got out of legislative committees.

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New Mexico laws could hamper spaceport, Wayne Hale states at symposium