NASA’s Ugalde and GBIC’s Salinas take questions from audience at Insights Unplugged

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – NASA’s Walt Ugalde and GBIC’s Gilberto Salinas responded to a wide range of questions from the audience at a recent Insights Unplugged event.

The questions included: What do we need to create a colony on Mars? What opportunities exist for young entrepreneurs in the Rio Grande Valley? What are the challenges for public transportation as SpaceX expands operations, what impact will SpaceX’s expansion have on the real estate market, and what can UT-Rio Grande Valley do to help prepare a better trained workforce.

Ugalde is economic development lead for NASA Johnson Space Center’s T2X/T2U program. Salinas is CEO of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation. Their conversation about the commercial space sector and what NASA plans to do was co-sponsored by GBIC, UTRGV’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, and the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation.

Before the Q&A session started, Linda Ufland Romo, director of entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialization at UTRGV’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, asked Salinas about the potential “industrial enhancements” that could come to Brownsville as a result of SpaceX’s growth.

“Well, I can’t name the company, but we do have another project that is coming in to support that overall ecosystem that you were talking about. Previously, they would not even open the door for us. Another huge name,” Salinas responded.

“We do have an industrial zone on the city’s north side that we can’t build fast enough, talking about nearshoring, reshoring, the space sector and to a certain extent, aerospace, we’re getting some activity there. Brownsville right now is on the map.”

Salinas said Brownsville has real estate for industrial activity but it is not shovel-ready. 

“We have no industrial space. We’re having to now work with a lot of developers to get that space up and open as fast as possible, because those companies are asking for that today, actually yesterday. So, we’re assembling the pieces, and we’re partnering with other communities to do the same.”

Here is a video recording of Salinas’ response to Ufland Romo’s question:

And here is a video recording of the Q&A session involving Salinas and Ugalde:

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