Space consultant talks about the future of space travel in west Texas

"Remember, Jeff Bezos is 120 miles down the road for a reason, he could of set up his location anywhere in the country he wanted."

MIDLAND, Texas — Oscar Garcia and his company InterFlight Global have been working directly with Midland for over four years now.

Last week, Garcia addressed the Midland Development Corporation on the future of aerospace and space travel in west Texas.

"Remember, Jeff Bezos is 120 miles down the road for a reason, he could have set up his location anywhere in the country he wanted," said Garcia

With Blue Origin setting up shop in Van Horn and SpaceX possibly opening a site in south Texas, space travel is here to stay.

"The space industry for five or six decades has developed in the coasts, east coast around Florida, at the Kennedy space center, west coast around California Vandenberg space center, so what's happenin is the center of the country was kind of left alone in the growth of the space industry," said Garcia.

But, in the last couple of decades, more space ports have been established in the middle of the country, including right here.

"Midland and six others in the center of the country started developing, and what happens now is we have the coasts and what we call the U.S. central space basin," said Garcia.

Midland Internat

ional Air and Space Port happens to be in the middle.

"Midland has emerged kind of as the central point of all the seven spaceports in the center of the nation," said Garcia. "We are working to consolidate that position for Midland to be the hub."

Credit: KWES

This is why Garcia is working with the MDC and city to help the air and space port reach its full potential.

"It's a natural playground, I call it an aerospace sandbox, where all these companies can come in without the airlines complaining that they are disrupting their traffic," said Garcia.