Midland awarded $5M grant to support vertical launch site development

MIDLAND, Texas — The Texas Space Commission has approved $9.7 million in new grant awards—and the City of Midland is receiving the largest share, securing $5 million for the development of a vertical launch site.

The funding is part of the Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund (SEARF), a state-backed program aimed at advancing space and aerospace opportunities across Texas. The grant will help expand Midland’s long-term space capabilities and further establish its role in the state’s growing space economy.

“The Texas Space Commission was created by the Texas legislative session—not this past session, but two years ago,” said Lourcey Sams, chairman of the Midland Development Corporation. “It was initially funded with $350 million by the appropriation committee with the Texas Legislature.”

Of the $150 million allocated to the SEARF program by state lawmakers in 2023, approximately $126 million has now been awarded to 22 projects statewide. Midland joins Houston and Plano in this latest round of grant approvals. Roughly $24 million remains available for future proposals.

“The City of Midland made an application to the Texas Space Commission for a grant for the development of our vertical launch site, west of Midland, about 120 miles,” Sams said.

That site, still under development, would be the first commercially available inland vertical launch site in the world. Sams said the project aims to support both suborbital and future orbital capabilities, a move that could position Midland as a major national and international launch destination.

“Right now, if you’re launching in the United States, you’re launching either on the West Coast or the East Coast—Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg,” Sams said. “By having an inland site, you have an alternative.”

Midland is already home to the only licensed commercial spaceport in the world that shares a runway with a commercial airline. The spaceport currently holds a horizontal launch license, but the new funding will support efforts to add a vertical license—broadening its potential use and attracting more companies.

“By adding a vertical license, we will be able to attract additional companies into this town and thereby create additional jobs,” Sams said.

Currently, about 450 people are employed at the Midland Air and Space Port. Sams said that the number is expected to grow significantly in the coming months.

“We also have in the works another 1,400 to 1,500 jobs that the City of Midland is going to learn about very shortly,” Sams said. “It’s very exciting for us, and it shows the confidence that the state of Texas has in the City of Midland and our initiative.”

As Sams puts it, “We're recognized as a spaceport… as a space city. So, it’s—it’s fantastic.”