RSSNew Mexico Home to Virgin Spaceport
By Ed Oswald | Published December 14, 2005, 11:47 AM
British tycoon Richard Branson's dream of a space tourism airline came one step closer to reality on Tuesday. Virgin Galactic, the company created for the project, announced it had struck an agreement with the state of New Mexico to build a $200 million "spaceport."
Virgin Galactic has agreed to locate both its headquarters and Mission Control within the state, which would be built on a 27 square-mile area of state-owned lands in southern New Mexico.
"New Mexico has worked hard to bring us to their exciting new spaceport facility," stated Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic. "The State has several factors that make it an ideal operations base: climate, free airspace, low population density, high altitude, and stunning scenery."
According to the company, nearly 38,000 people from 126 countries worldwide have anted up the $20,000 necessary to secure a seat on one of space airliner's flights. 100 have paid the full $200,000 ticket price upfront, which the company calls its "founders."
Virgin Galactic hopes to begin service in late 2008 or early 2009. Construction of the spaceport could begin in 2007 pending various approvals, New Mexico authorities said.
Plans for the spaceport show that most of it would be underground, with just the runways and supporting structures above ground.
Opening of the spaceport would occur in late 2009 or early 2010, and until then Virgin Galactic would operate its initial flights from a Mojave Desert location.
Five planes will be built by Burt Rutan, the same man who designed the SpaceShipOne craft that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize earlier this year.
New Mexico is also hoping that the signing of Virgin Galactic will entice other space companies to base themselves in the state, creating thousands of new jobs for the state's residents and spurring a whole new industry.
Branson will join New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to publicly announce the deal on Wednesday.
Until now this has been largely speculation and ideas, but now the money is on the table and Branson has gone ahead with it, it is surely now only a matter of a few years before this business really gets off the ground (pardon the pun).
NASA has not been keen on space tourism. I can't see why. This development must surely bring down the cost of spaceflight, which given NASA's long-standing budget wrangles, ought to be a good thing for everyone.
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|NASA has not been keen because no one has ever really gone into outspace....
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|Lol yeah... and the '69 moon landing was a fake.
Riiiiiiight...
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|This is unbelievable. I sure hope this all goes through, becasue this would definately be the biggest dream come true ever.
One thing I'm curious about.. it says on their website:
"By the end of the decade, Virgin Galactic - the most exciting development in the story of modern space history - is planning to make it possible for almost anyone to visit the final frontier at an affordable price."
I'm wondering what their idea of "affordable" is.. They're selling reservations for $200,000 right now.
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|They really need to sell the naming rights to LucasArts and call the place Mos Eisley.
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|Oh wow. That would be so insanely awesome. Words can't even begin to describe.
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|I was wondering when we would see a commercial/leisure "spaceline".
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|Now all we need is someplace to go.
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|Titanic 2.
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|That is a pretty ignorant assumption to be making; this is a new milestone in aviation. Unless you are an aeronautical engineer, or have extensive knowledge of the safety procedures and regulations why even open your mouth?
Titanic was a ship with no radar, with many safety measures simply over looked. It was a great achievement; at the same time a huge failure resulting in a tragic loss. Your comparison is also flawed.
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|You're an idiot. Who makes a stupid dumb comment like that???
This is exciting news in the "move to space".
Humans have been crazy about space since the 1960's when the first space flight and moon landings occurred.
It's good news that finally space has been opened up for normal people to visit.
It may be expensive but so was airplane travel at first. Maybe in 20 or 30 years, space travel will be as widespread, easy and cheap as plane travel is now.
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|I don't want to get too deep in the argument but in 1912 the Titanic was "state of the art" and "unsinkable". In hindsight we're able to say that it sucks compared to our technology, that's pretty easy. In 100 years they'll be looking back at Virgin Galactic and saying "i can't believe they didn't have XXX - didn't they know how unsafe that was?" I don't think drumcat's comment was inappropriate, I just hope it doesn't come true.
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|I agree. It will only be years after that we would be able to identify exactly what needs to be put on a spaceline such as the one described. Things that may not even be created or thought of yet.
And though his comment is a bit comical in nature and not meant as an insult, it is easy to see the comparison. I wouldn't want to be the first to travel on it either, but the thought of going to space is right up there as being fantastic!
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|There are many things that can go wrong, however to my knowledge they are traveling to something around FL100, correct me if I am wrong. This is just pushing the envelope a little bit further, it is 3x that of commercial flights now. However in aviation, a lot of scenarios are played through and through and if anything as so much causes one person to doubt it, they go back to the think tanks. DC3's are still flown to this day, Northwest has a huge fleet of DC9's still. Those are 30-40 some odd years old; however still great aircrafts if maintenance is good. The point is this is truly the next step in commercial aviation, less noise, faster flights and safer. There is much less elements at that altitude then you deal with at 36,000 feet. Weather, bird strike, noise pollution, restricted air space, crowded airways are all problems us pilots deal with constantly. This is all something just to think about. I see how he meant no harm, but this has been a terrible year for aviation and referring to crashes in that manor is just not funny. Hopefully this coming year brings a much safer year.
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|This comment is stupid, but it holds some sense.
Space travel is dangerous. Anything can go wrong up there, but unlike the Titanic in 1912, there is no where to go. I just hope that nothing happens, because it would mean instant death for anyone that goes up there.
Posts below this also have a point. Wait about 20 - 30 (100?) years, and space travel will be much better. Maybe they'll build ships like we see on Star Wars*, with shields and stuff, so that disasters can be avoided
* = When I say Star Wars, I am refering to the small "family class" star ships of the thing, not fighters or capital ships, if you get what I mean.
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|Right you are, but what about the unknown - things floating in space. Junk us humans put there, as well as the million other things we don't know about space. Combine this with the factor of human error and ignorance - WOW! I still hear of planes falling from the sky. Whether from human or mechanical error. Heck, look at the space shuttle.
That is only the point we are making. Not the intentions of our post to diminish the efforts, but one that states there are several unknowns still to be known.
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