Hi all, I’m Alice, the new COO of Higher Orbits. What is a COO? Well, a COO is a Chief Operating Officer responsible for translating strategic goals into daily operational plans. At a more basic level, I’m here to help Michelle and Higher Orbits grow and thrive so that we can celebrate more milestones in the years to come.
I’m never quite sure how to share a story that is about me, so I guess I’ll start at the beginning. I’m not from around these parts (as in the Americas). I was born and raised in England, about 30 miles east of London, and I’ll be honest, I did not grow up dreaming of space or wanting to be an astronaut. In fact, I grew up wanting to go to war zones (yes, really!). I remember sitting in front of the news watching a war correspondent in Bosnia and declaring to my parents that I wanted to be there when I was older. They assumed, like most, that it meant that I wanted to be the correspondent, but my ambition was always to be behind the camera. I wanted to tell stories, but I didn’t want to deliver them on camera myself.
I went to school to study broadcasting in London, graduated a few weeks before my 21st birthday, and began working in television. I walked into a producer's role, managing storylines for presenters to share on camera. My work eventually took me overseas to the Middle East. I joined Al Jazeera English in 2008, first in operations, and later in the newsroom. I got to share stories from around the world and was blessed to travel all over Asia.
So how did I end up in the space industry in the US? Well, I met a boy, fell in love, and followed him to New Mexico.
We moved to Las Cruces in 2013. For a few years I stayed at home to raise my little ones, but I knew I wanted to return to storytelling once they were old enough. In 2017, a new community radio station opened, and they were looking for folks to volunteer. I signed up to help produce some segments and on my second assignment, I was asked to cover a new space festival. Space? What does New Mexico have to do with space? Well, let me tell you- EVERYTHING!
I lived down the road to the birthplace of the US space and missile program for nearly 4 years before I realized that it existed (and worse, my husband actually worked at the missile range!). You see, New Mexico has been the test bed for rocket launches for nearly 100 years. Robert Goddard, the “father of modern rocketry”, came to the state to test his rocket designs in 1930, after 4 years of testing in Massachusetts. Later, the V2 rockets were transported to White Sands Proving Ground, now known as White Sands Missile Range, and first launched. So it makes sense that New Mexico was also the first state to develop a purpose-built commercial spaceport, Spaceport America.
I’ll be honest, I was instantly hooked on the story of space history and wanted more people to learn about it, so I joined the Las Cruces Space Festival board, managing the media side of operations. I was later given the opportunity to join Solstar Space as the director of media. It was in this role that I first met Michelle at the ISPCS event in 2019. She blew me away with her knowledge about the space industry and how she was supporting the future workforce. We were due to work together in Las Cruces in 2020, but COVID had other ideas. We stayed in touch, and I knew that I wanted to bring Go For Launch! to the region when the time was right.
In 2020, I joined the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, working at Spaceport America as the PR Coordinator, and later the Public Information Officer. I developed the STEM tours at the spaceport and worked with the Global Spaceport Alliance to help spread the word that outreach and supporting education from a young age would support and develop the future workforce. I was at the Spaceport during the first human spaceflight, supported the launch of Virgin Galactic’s first crewed mission, supported customers such as Intuitive Machines, SpinLaunch, and Arrow McLaren’s Indie Car Team, as well as the IREC competition, which I still support today.
I left the spaceport in 2023 to start the first daily space news podcast, T-Minus Space Daily. It gave me the opportunity to tell more stories about what was going on in the space industry around the world, and grow both my space knowledge and network which I will now be bringing to Higher Orbits.
Last year, Michelle and I finally got to bring Go For Launch! to Las Cruces and Albuquerque. I knew that it would be a great event, but really, you have to see it to believe how transformative it is for the participants. I watched one student go from barely making eye contact and whispering her name on day one, to presenting at Spaceport America alongside the Lt Governor of New Mexico the day after the event concluded. That is the kind of impact Go For Launch! can have on students, and that is what I want to help bring to more students across the US.
So let’s talk about how we can bring Go For Launch! to your area, and let’s talk about how you can support the future workforce, not just in the space industry, but across all STEAM disciplines. You can reach me at alice@higherorbits.org.
Written by Alice Carruth
