Paso Robles Chamber endorses proposed spaceport

PASO ROBLES, Calif. -- The Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the City's application for the Paso Robles Airport to become a licensed U.S. Air & Spaceport on Tuesday.

The Chamber's President and CEO Gina Fitzpatrick presented a letter of support to the City Mayor Steve Martin.

On August 3, the City Council voted unanimously to submit pre-application information to the FAA for a Spaceport license for the Paso Robles Airport.

"The Chamber has long considered the Paso Robles Airport to be one of our community’s prized assets with the means to be utilized as a desired location for emerging aviation and space technologies. With regional stakeholders and leaders actively engaged in developing Vandenberg AFB into a thriving space force base, it is timely for Paso Robles to explore concepts that can benefit northern San Luis Obispo County and align with regional development plans," said Fitzpatrick. 

The City Council will also continue to evaluate the Spaceport license opportunity with the Airport Commission.

"For 40 years now we've been saying we have an airport that's a diamond in the rough and looking for a way to polish that diamond up," said Mayor Martin during the city council meeting. "We actually have a chance to apply that polish." 

A number of companies involved in the space technology sector have been in contact with the City regarding the Spaceport project.

The City says it is actively researching the potential opportunities of the space tech economy.