[1st-mile-nm] Sceye Inc. to build stratospheric airships in NM

[Richard Lowenberg]

Sceye Inc. to build stratospheric airships in NM

BY KEVIN ROBINSON-AVILA / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, August 18th, 2020 at 12:02am
https://www.abqjournal.com/1487318/sceye-inc-to-build-stratospheric-airships-in-nm.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Aerospace startup Sceye Inc. will soon build 
helium-filled airships in New Mexico that, by 2022, could hover over 
remote places across the state to provide broadband connectivity and 
environmental monitoring services.

The state Economic Development Department has pledged $5 million in 
Local Economic Development Act funding to help the company establish a 
production facility here, bringing 140 new manufacturing and engineering 
jobs to the state.

The company, which launched in 2014, has already been developing and 
testing its airships at the Roswell International Air Center and the 
Moriarty Municipal Airport since 2017. It has invested more than $50 
million to create a stratospheric airship built to hover for long 
periods of time at 65,000 feet up.

The company expects to operate a fleet of five ships over New Mexico 
within two years to potentially offer broadband service from the sky for 
the Navajo Nation and other rural areas in partnership with private 
companies, while also monitoring for methane emissions, ozone levels and 
other things under contract with the state, said Economic Development 
Secretary Alicia J. Keyes.

The decision by Sceye (pronounced “Sky”) to set up manufacturing in New 
Mexico and launch its first commercial services here is a “slam dunk” 
for the state, Keyes said.

“New Mexico has been home to many innovative companies and Sceye’s 
approach to broadband and methane monitoring is game changing,” Keyes 
said in a statement. “It’s these types of disruptive companies that will 
drive economic development in the state for years to come.”

Sceye CEO Mikkel Vestergarrd will testify today about broadband access 
and the company’s technology before the State Legislature’s Interim 
Committee on Science, Technology and Communications.

Vestergarrd is known worldwide for developing ground-breaking medical 
technologies to fight malaria and other diseases through “Vestergarrd,” 
a Switzerland-based global health corporation he founded and led for 22 
years. He stepped down from the health company last January to 
concentrate on Sceye as a platform technology to attack global problems, 
such as monitoring the effects of climate change, while also providing 
off-grid connectivity in remote communities.

The company is discussing future environmental monitoring services with 
the state Environment Department, Keyes said. It’s also working with the 
state Transportation Department to compile comprehensive information on 
Sceye’s stratosphere-based broadband technology during upcoming airship 
flights in October, Keyes told the Journal.

That data could then be used by private Internet providers to seek 
federal funding to help tap into Sceye services to offer broadband on 
the Navajo Nation and elsewhere.

“The Sceye platform has flown two times in New Mexico, but more flights 
are needed to gather data,” Keyes said. “… This is an innovative 
technology solution that could potentially be much less expensive to 
provide broadband in rural areas of New Mexico than putting fiber in the 
ground.”

Sceye credits state incentives like LEDA funding for locating its 
operations here.

“Our partnership with the Economic Development Department has helped us 
choose New Mexico, not just for research and development, but for scaled 
production of our business in the future,” Vestergarrd said in a 
statement.

The company hasn’t announced where it will put its manufacturing site. 
But it’s seeking technical assistance from the state’s national 
laboratories and research universities.

“The company is collaborating with local institutions for the skilled 
workforce it needs,” Keyes said. “These are high-paying jobs.”


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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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