2 companies want to team up with Paso Robles spaceport — and one was started by Cal Poly grads

The Paso Robles spaceport project has received its first international letter of intent — and it comes from a couple of Cal Poly alumni, according a recent newsletter from the city of Paso Robles.

UARX Space co-founders Yanina Hallak and Andrés Villa took a tour of the future spaceport and tech corridor area, accompanied by Paso Robles economic development manager Paul Sloan.

The Spanish company has expressed interest in expanding its space exploration efforts to the United States, according to Sloan.

“It makes sense for U.S. customers to ship the satellites inside the country to California,” Halik said. “We’re in Spain, but we have customers in the U.S. It doesn’t make sense for them to bring their satellite here with all the paperwork that thing involves.”

The company also hopes to hone in on the engineering skills of Cal Poly students, the co-founders told The Tribune.

Hallak said she and Villa received master’s degrees in aerospace engineering at the San Luis Obispo university.

“Cal Poly is one of the best institutions in the West,” Hallak said, adding that students need, “places where they can develop their careers.”

In addition, Stellar Exploration, an aerospace company based out of San Luis Obispo, signed a letter of intent to develop satellite technology at the spaceport, the city said.

The city-led spaceport project includes two aspects, the first being the development of a tech corridor.

This area would focus on developing business, park technology and park space, according to Sloan.

The second step involves licensing the Paso Robles spaceport and licensing it with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Licensing the spaceport will take three different phases, the first of which has been concluded, Sloan said.

Phase one included a preliminary technical review to see if Paso Robles can viably support a spaceport.

Now, in phase two, Sloan expects to have an application submitted to the FAA by June 2023.

“Depending on the process back and forth, and we’re still on track, the overall timeline is potentially to have an actual spaceport license issued by June of 2024,” Sloan said. “So it’s about a two-year timeline.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 2:25 PM.