San Antonio's largest technology center is getting a state-of-the-art office tower

ICONIC ARCHITECTURE

Photo courtesy Port San Antonio / Pelli Clarke & Partners

Pre-development work for a brand new, state-of-the-art office tower at the main entrance of the largest technology center in San Antonio is beginning this April.

Port San Antonio has moved forward with their plans to create a striking modern tower with global real estate development firm Trammell Crow Company (TCC) and architectural firm Pelli Clarke and Partners.

"We're excited to bring world-class partners to our team as we plan our region’s future as leaders in technological innovation," said Port San Antonio president and CEO Jim Perschbach in a press release. "Our new building is more than just a place to work–it’s a symbol of our bright future and a recognition that we stand on the shoulders of the generations who came before us building one of the world’s most important centers for world-changing innovations."

The size of the tower and construction costs are yet to be determined, but the massive development on the 1,900-acre campus follows after the company’s six-year employment boom, adding over 7,000 new jobs to Tech Port. Some of the major employers operating at the Port include Boeing, the U.S. Air Force, Accenture Federal Services, and over 80 others.

Port San Antonio new tower rendering The size of the tower and construction costs are yet to be determined.Photo courtesy Port San Antonio / Pelli Clarke & Partners

The new office tower is just one of three significant projects the Port announced in 2022 to signify the company’s growth. One of the main goals of the new tower is to strengthen San Antonio’s presence in the tech world, showcasing the city’s capabilities for the future.

"Because of our sharp focus on creating a community where people from all walks of life can connect with life-changing opportunities, this campus has seen exciting growth by our customers, and much more is expected in the months and years ahead," said Port Board Chair Margaret Wilson-Anaglia. "Our customers’ success, from global names to home-grown tech entrepreneurs, has fueled our expansion, and we are ready for our next phase as one of the most vibrant places in our community."

Most recently, a multi-purpose facility called the Boeing Center at Tech Port opened last year to add several new educational and entrepreneurial attractions to San Antonio. A few of the new features included a 3,500-seat arena, a technology lab and startup accelerator, a LAN gaming center, and a “technology showcase” by the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology called Area 21. All roads lead to the Kelly Heritage Foundation, where profits at the Boeing Center are donated to support funding educational programs for younger generations all around the area.

More information can be found at portsanantonio.us.

Photo courtesy of 19Keys

19Keys: The Highest Level Tour

19Keys is a global thought leader and one of the pioneers in the space of Web 3, business, tech, metaphysic, and financial literacy, having millions of followers across the globe. He is known for his efforts in matters of wealth creation and is the co-founder of initiatives such as The Block World Order (BWO), Goldewater, and Crownz Society.

19Keys and special guests will talk about everything from making more money to being happier and more successful.

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New clinical trial for lumbar spinal surgery begins in San Antonio

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH

A new clinical trial is underway for an alternative method to lumbar spinal fusion surgery. Orthopedic medical center Ortho San Antonio and orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Anton Jorgensen announced the BalancedBack Total Joint Replacement trial using a “first-of-its-kind” technology called the 3Spine MOTUS device.

3Spine is a healthcare company focused on integrating development, research, and execution of lower back total joint replacement. The combination of the 3Spine procedure and the MOTUS device aim to address leg pain, back pain, and spinal instability. The surgery implements reconstruction of the functional spinal unit to treat degenerative disease.

Dr. Jorgensen was trained by fellow orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Hodges, the co-founder and medical director of 3Spine. Dr. Jorgensen said in a press release that he is proud to be the first Texas surgeon to participate in an important clinical trial of this type. He encouraged the community to keep in mind the challenges that come with spinal fusion surgery while searching for “new and innovative solutions to improve patient care.”

“This is something new I had to learn and practice, but I am convinced that MOTUS has the potential to fundamentally change the way I treat degenerative lumbar disease,” he said.

The first surgeries in the trial were completed at the Foundation Surgical Hospital of San Antonio. 3Spine Inc. is seeking certain patients with single-level lumbar spine disease and lumbar degeneration to participate in the study. Patients interested in the clinical trial in San Antonio can email brouk.gebreab@christushealth.org for more information.

Photo by Ben Smegelsky/NASA via NASA Flickr

NASA sets new launch date for historic return to the moon

go for launch

Texans who are eagerly anticipating America’s historic return to the moon now have a new date to mark on their calendars. Artemis I will launch on Saturday, September 3, with a two-hour window beginning at 1:17 pm, NASA announced August 30.

Viewers can tune into the livestream of the rocket and spacecraft at the launch pad on the NASA Kennedy YouTube channel. Additionally, live coverage of events can be found on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

This comes after the initial August 29 launch was scrubbed. At that time, teams were not able to chill down the four RS-25 engines to necessary temperatures. Teams also caught and quickly managed a hydrogen leak on one of the rocket’s components.

NASA reports that teams are currently addressing and testing both issues in advance of the Saturday launch. Another important component for flight windows — weather — is currently favorable. Meteorologists with the U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 45 forecast favorable weather conditions for Saturday. Though some rain showers are expected, they are predicted to be sporadic during the launch window, per NASA.

Artemis I is the first flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System rocket (dubbed SLS), and the ground systems at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond,” NASA notes in a news release. “The mission will demonstrate the performance of the SLS rocket and test Orion’s capabilities over the course of about six weeks as it travels about 40,000 miles beyond the Moon and back to Earth.”

Given the gravity of the launch, NASA planned considerable fanfare for the broadcast, including celebrity appearances by Jack Black, Chris Evans, and Keke Palmer, as well as a special performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Josh Groban and Herbie Hancock. A planned musical performance featured “America the Beautiful” by The Philadelphia Orchestra and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Representatives from Johnson Space Center had not received an update on the Saturday broadcast program when contacted on Wednesday, August 31.

Texas — and Houston specifically — has been inextricably tied to lunar missions ever since NASA’s first launches. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy boldly declared that America would go to the moon before the end of the decade in front of a packed Rice University football stadium.

On July 20, 1969 — a commitment to the late President Kennedy’s directive — Apollo 11 marked its arrival to the lunar surface with a statement heard around the globe from Commander Neil Armstrong, who would take mankind’s first steps on the surface: “Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed.”

And the Bayou City has (somewhat tiredly) been the source of a ubiquitous sentence — actually, a paraphrasing — uttered by Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” The adjusted “Houston, we have a problem” declaration was later immortalized by Tom Hanks (as Lovell) in the blockbuster Apollo 13.

What will be the next iconic phrase sent back to Houston when NASA’s manned mission readies to land on Earth’s sole satellite? The countdown is on.

Courtesy of Port San Antonio

San Antonio computes 80 percent growth in tech jobs from 2021-2022

Plugged in

San Antonio’s stature as a hub for cybersecurity is boosting its profile as a hub for tech employment.

A new report from Dice, an online platform for tech professionals, shows San Antonio ranked sixth among major U.S. cities for the growth of tech job postings from the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2022. San Antonio registered an increase of 80 percent.

At No. 5, Houston was one notch above San Antonio, with an 83 percent growth rate for tech job postings. Dallas appeared at No. 15 on the list, recording a 58 percent growth rate for tech job postings. Austin failed to make the top 25 in this category.

Orlando, Florida, topped the list, boasting a 111 percent growth rate for tech job postings.

Dice notes that Austin and Dallas sometimes overshadow San Antonio in terms of tech employment. But it emphasizes San Antonio’s increasing importance as a hub for cybersecurity innovation.

A report from Tech Bloc, a citywide initiative aimed at growing San Antonio’s tech sector, shows the local IT industry generates an annual economic impact of nearly $11 billion, up 27 percent from 2010. Meanwhile, the number of IT companies in San Antonio jumped 36 percent from 2015 to 2020.

Much of that growth is being driven by the cybersecurity sector. San Antonio is home to more cybersecurity professionals than anyplace else in the U.S. other than Washington, D.C. Thus, San Antonio has adopted the identity of “America’s Cyber City.”

“The alignment of education, industry, and government within cybersecurity, and the ability to collaborate across these sectors, presents the city’s most significant opportunity for industry development,” Business Facilities magazine observed in 2020.

Business Facilities traces the roots of San Antonio’s cybersecurity presence to 1948, when the Air Force established its Security Service operations in Alamo City.

“To further develop San Antonio’s cybersecurity dominance, we’re focused on talent development tailored to industry needs in the cybersecurity industry,” Tom Long, managing director of the greater:SATX economic partnership, told the magazine. “It’s a strategy gaining attention and investment from cybersecurity operations large and small, as well as large corporations with significant internal cybersecurity hub operations.”

Photo courtesy of NASA

NASA taps Texas companies to launch revolutionary new spacesuit project

top (flight) gear

Two startups — including Houston-based Axiom Space — have been tasked with helping NASA gear up for human space exploration at the International Space Station and on the moon as part of a spacesuit deal potentially worth billions of dollars.

NASA recently picked Axiom and Collins Aerospace to help advance spacewalking capabilities in low-earth orbit and on the moon by outfitting astronauts with next-generation spacesuits. While headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Collins has a significant presence in the Houston Spaceport.

This deal will help support landing the first woman and the first person of color on the moon as part of NASA’s return to our lunar neighbor. The equipment also will help NASA prepare for human missions to Mars.

Under this agreement, NASA, Axiom, and Collins “will develop advanced, reliable spacesuits that allow humans to explore the cosmos unlike ever before,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, says in a news release. “By partnering with industry, we are efficiently advancing the necessary technology to keep Americans on a path of successful discovery on the International Space Station and as we set our sights on exploring the lunar surface.”

Axiom and Collins were chosen under an umbrella contract known as Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS). The contract carries a potential value of $3.5 billion.

Michael Suffredini, co-founder, president, and CEO of Axiom, says his company’s “innovative approach to xEVAS spacesuits provides NASA with an evolvable design that enables cost-efficient development, testing, training, deployment, and real-time operations to address a variety of EVA needs and operational scenarios for a range of customers, including NASA.”

Axiom’s partners on this project are KBR and Sophic Synergistics, both based in Houston, along with Air-Lock, David Clark Co., Paragon Space Development, and A-P-T Research.

NASA says Axiom and Collins will own the spacesuits, and are being encouraged to explore non-NASA commercial applications for data and technology they co-develop with the space agency.

The EVA & Human Surface Mobility Program at the Johnson Space Center is managing the xEVAS contract.

NASA astronauts have needed updated spacesuits for years.

“The decades-old spacesuit designs currently in use on the International Space Station are well past their prime. NASA had been working on new suits and showed off a patriotic prototype of a moonwalking outfit — called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU — back in 2019,” according to CNET.

A 2021 report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General called out delays in developing the spacesuits that would make a proposed 2024 human moon landing unfeasible, CNET says. Now, Axiom and Collins, instead of NASA, will create the spacesuits. Demonstration-ready spacesuits are supposed to be ready in 2025.

The spacesuit deal is the latest in a string of milestones for Axiom.

Axiom recently broke ground on its new headquarters at Houston Spaceport. There, the company will build Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station.

Axiom also recently welcomed home the crew of Axiom Mission 1 after their successful completion of the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The crew came back to earth in a SpaceX capsule. The company has signed agreements with several countries, including Italy, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates, for future space missions.

Axiom recently tapped Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei as its first international professional astronaut. He currently is being trained in Houston and will serve as a backup on Axiom Mission 2.

Founded in 2016, Axiom employs more than 500 people, most of whom work in Houston. The company expects its workforce to exceed 1,000 employees by 2023.

To date, Axiom has raised $150 million in venture capital.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site InnovationMap.

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7 San Antonio icons star in new Texas Monthly book documenting most influential Texans of last 50 years

LONE STARS RISING

Texas Monthly's editors have released the next book for reading list queues. To commemorate the publication's 50th anniversary, they've collected and bound the stories and photographs of 50 iconic Texans that have shaped our great state and the country over the past 50 years. And seven San Antonio megastars have made it on the roster.

Lone Stars Risingis Texas Monthly's third book, created in collaboration with Harper Wave Books. Among the book's 256 pages are not just the rich histories and commentaries about our most recognizable Texas legends, but a few "lesser-known individuals who have been toiling on the sidelines, quietly and intentionally shaping" our perception of our vast and great state.

The seven Alamo City idols that made it into the book include business magnates, legendary musicians, inspirational activists and artists.

Selena Quintanilla, the Queen of Tejano who opened her second boutique in San Antonio
George Strait, the King of Country
Charles Butt, CEO, Chairman, and heir of H-E-B
Sandra Cisneros, nationally-recognized author and founder of San Antonio's Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation
Willie Velásquez, social activist who founded the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
Gloria Anzaldúa, author, poet, scholar, and feminist
Robert Rodriguez, the filmmaker behind the Spy Kids and Machete movies

Selena Facebook

Selena Quintanilla leads the list of San Antonio icons.

Lone Stars Rising will be available for purchase on June 6. More information about the book can be found on texasmonthly.com.

UT Austin's Texas Exes awards 5 fastest growing, Longhorn-run businesses in San Antonio

WE LOVE LOCAL BIZ

Maybe it's not as much of a surprise given how big our city is, but did you know several of San Antonio's local businesses are run by University of Texas at Austin grads? Now, five of Alamo City's fastest growing, Longhorn-run businesses are receiving the recognition they deserve by their alma mater.

UT Austin's alumni association, the Texas Exes, celebrated 100 nationwide companies who were founded, owned, or led by Longhorns over the past five years with the inaugural Longhorn 100 Gala on May 18. Award recipients must have held a minimum annual revenue of $250,000 since 2019 to qualify, in addition to their Longhorn status.

The San Antonio winners include popular restaurants, clinics, a construction and architecture firm, a community organization, and more:

Stagg Restaurants Dba McDonald's
San Antonio Cosmetic Surgery, PA
BIRD Bakery
OfficeSource, Ltd
Day 1 Bags (Boerne)

Elsewhere around the state, Austin-area businesses (of course) took home the most awards, totaling 43. Hill Country Dental Associates in Kerrville and McAllen's Castle Hospitality also took home Longhorn 100 Awards. In Houston, 13 businesses were also celebrated.

The full list of Longhorn 100 winners from around the state can be found on texasexes.org.

Whataburger weighs in as healthiest cheeseburger in the nation

THEMS EATIN' WORDS

With its love of greasy enchiladas, gluttonous fried steaks, and fat-speckled brisket, San Antonio isn’t exactly known as a healthy eating mecca. But it turns out that one locally beloved dish isn’t as unhealthy as one might think.

Inspired by February’s American Heart Month (albeit belatedly), Gambling.com decided to dig deep into which fast-food burger was best for the ticker and the body overall. What that has to do with online slots is anyone’s guess, but perhaps open-heart surgeries are not conducive to risk-taking.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Local favorite/ food cult Whataburger took the top slot, earning honors with its standby cheeseburger. Assumably, the gambling site considered the mustard-slathered original, eschewing calorie bombs like bacon slices and creamy pepper sauce. Where’s the fun of Whataburger if you can’t get it just like you like it?

To arrive at the rankings, Gambling.com analyzed each burger for sugar, fat, salt, and calorie content per ounce. Each metric was given a one to ten score that factored into the final report card shared with content-hungry food journalists everywhere.

Coming in a close second was In-N-Out’s cheeseburger, a comforting fact for Texans who enjoy complaining about Californians. Rounding out the top five were Checker’s Checkerburger with Cheese, Culver’s ButterBurger Cheese, and Del Taco’s del Cheese Burger.

For those trying to make better eating choices, that list should give some pause. Yes, Whataburger beats out other fast-food faves, but it was competing against a chain that literally toasts all their buns in churned cream. Health is a relative concept.

Elsewhere on the list was another Texas darling, the No. 6 ranked Dairy Queen. Apparently, all that “hungr” is being busted by a hefty dose of sodium. Yes, we will take fries with that.

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