Space Tourism: Closer Than You Think

When it comes to outer-space, New Mexico has been the site of some great milestones: the White Sands Proving Grounds is considered the birthplace of modern rocketry and who can forget the never-ending alien conspiracy that surrounds the small town of Roswell. Now you can add another headline to the list: Thanks to the deep pockets of none-other than Virgin Records Richard Branson, New Mexico will soon be the location of the nation's very first built-from-scratch commercial SPACEPORT.

According to www.space.com, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and Branson inked a deal to the tune of $225 million dollars for the tentatively named South-West Regional Spaceport -- built from specifications of Branson's pace-tourism venture Virgin Galactic.

The Bahrain Tribune (www.bahraintribune.com) recently published a story on December 28^th stating that Branson was looking around the Gulf for a site from which to launch his commercial space flight and found it in Bahrain. However, Virgin quickly countered by saying that it is still working with Mohave Aerospace Ventures to start the world's first commercial spaceline and is still planning to start flights from New Mexico. According to the Virgin Galactic Web site, the carrier will operate one 150 minute space journey per week, carrying six space tourists at a time.

Lest you think the SpacePort is some docking point for a Close Encounters-like scenario then think again. The SpacePort is -- above all else -- a money-making venture: Branson's Virgin Galactic hopes to debut its first flight in 2009 with $200,000-per-ticket suborbital flight hops aboard spaceships now in development by Scaled Composits (www.scaled.com) -- the same company that launched the first privately funded spacecraft -- called SpaceShipOne back in 2004.

Space.com points out that the SpacePort's design calls for the facility to be built mostly underground in an effort to reduce its environmental impact. The SpacePort will also use solar power, water-retention systems and underground hangers. Spaceships would emerge from a single long runaway as it prepares for launch.