New Mexico Home to Virgin Spaceport

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.