Blogs

---

By Karina Drees, CEO and General Manager, Mojave Air & Space Port

The sky is not the limit at Mojave Air & Space Port where innovation is the order of the day. This is the sentiment of CEO and General Manager, Karina Drees, as well as the entire team at Mojave Air & Space Port.

Throughout its many incarnations, Mojave Air & Space Port has had a long history of service and innovation dating back to its inception in 1935 when it was formed to serve the gold and silver mining industries in the Mojave area. During World War II, the facility was tapped to be a U.S. Marine Corps base. After the war, the U.S. Navy briefly maintained an air station at the airfield. 

In 1972, after the U.S. military left the airport, it became the East Kern Airport District, serving small, private aircraft with fuel and hangars as well as providing fueling service to military aircraft and leasing buildings to various businesses. Under the leadership of Dan Sabovich, the airport grew by encouraging investment and recruiting new businesses, such as the Rutan Aircraft Factory. 

It was at Mojave Air & Space Port that the Voyager aircraft was born. Engineered by Burt Rutan and built with the help of many others, Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager, cemented its place in aviation history becoming the first aircraft to circle the globe without refueling in December 1986. 

And that was just the beginning of the innovation and development at Mojave Air & Space Port, where everything is possible. In 2004, Paul Allen, Scaled Composites and Burt Rutan formed Mojave Aerospace Ventures and developed both White Knight and SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne was an experimental air-launched, rocket-powered craft carried by its mother ship: White Knight. In 2004, SpaceShipOne captured the $10M Ansari X PRIZE by becoming the first commercially piloted spaceship to successfully reach space without government funding. 

With an eye to the future, under the leadership of then CEO Stuart Witt, East Kern Airport District became Mojave Air & Space Port in 2012, signaling the dawn of a new era at the airfield. The name change more accurately reflected our work, mission and vision. With tenants such as Scaled Composites, The Spaceship Company, Stratolaunch and Virgin Galactic, Mojave Air & Space Port is well on its way toward fulfilling those goals. One need only look at our colorful history to imagine our vibrant future.

Virgin Galactic began working on VSS Unity in 2012. It was planned as a sub-orbital, manned space plane, with the intention to take the first human payload into space and make commercial space travel possible. After the long process of design, building and testing over a span of several years, VSS Unity took flight on September 8, 2016.  VSS Unity achieved its first suborbital spaceflight on December 13, 2018, which was the first time the Unites States sent Americans to space since 2011. Virgin Galactic’s stated intention of carrying paying passengers into space is very close to being fulfilled.

Stratolaunch, the world’s largest airplane, was conceived of as a mobile launch system. Built by Scaled Composites, the project started in 2010, though it was not announced until 2011. After years of research, development and testing, Stratolaunch made flight on April 13, 2019, reaching 15,000 feet. 

With such a rich history of service and innovation, and an atmosphere that is full of design and development, there is no limit to what can be accomplished at Mojave Air & Space Port. The positive, encouraging and supportive atmosphere at Mojave Air & Space Port makes all things possible. Customers at the airport are only limited by their imagination. Innovation is encouraged and effort is applauded.  There truly are no failures, only ruling out possibilities that take the customers at the airport one step closer to success.

---

#FeatureNews