the 62 miles required to win the prize. Two months
later, it would fly even higher and repeat the feat in
less than two weeks to win the prize. The test flight
impressed Homans on both emotional and practical
levels. “It did not escape us, the huge significance of
this being the beginning of a whole new industry in
which New Mexico will play a very big role,” he said.
The significance of SpaceShipOne also did not
escape Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin family of
companies. He established Virgin Galactic, which he
envisioned as the world’s first commercial spaceline,
offering passenger spaceflights as an airline offers
commercial airplane flights. He contracted with Burt
Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipOne, to expand
the concept into a mothership and spaceship
(SpaceShipTwo) that could carry a pilot, a copilot, and
six space tourists. Homans saw it as another opportunity
for New Mexico’s space industry. “Just like with the X
Prize Cup, we said that it was absolutely essential that we
recruit Branson to operate out of New Mexico,” he said.
In 2005 New Mexico established the state’s Spaceport
Authority, with Homans as its first chairman. He and
Richard Kestner, the director of the Office of Space
Commercialization, flew to London to pitch a new
spaceport to Virgin Galactic officials. They were
armed with several space tourism polls and economic
impact studies. In December 2005, Branson announced
that the world headquarters of Virgin Galactic
would be established in New Mexico. The following
month, he came to Santa Fe to lobby New Mexico
legislators. The lawmakers appropriated $110 million
toward building the Southwest Regional Spaceport,
which was soon renamed Spaceport America. Two
counties directly affected by the spaceport’s location
passed tax increases to provide the rest of the $210
million needed to design and build the facility.
The location chosen for the spaceport is a 28-squaremile parcel 45 miles north of Las Cruces. It is adjacent
to the western boundary of White Sands Missile Range,
which has restricted air space to unlimited altitudes and
offers support with flight tracking and payload recovery.
Spaceport activity
Virgin Galactic signed on as the anchor tenant for
Spaceport America, but it would not be the only tenant.
In 2006, UP Aerospace began launching unmanned
suborbital rockets carrying government research
payloads, student experiments, and commercial
cargo. At that time, the spaceport’s only facilities were
a launch pad and three small buildings. By January
2014, UP Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace had
conducted twenty unmanned vertical launches
from the spaceport. A larger launch facility is being
constructed for use by SpaceX, which signed a threeyear agreement to test its Falcon 9R rocket there.
The most visually appealing part of Spaceport
America, the Gateway to Space, received a certificate
of occupancy in late 2012 and the interior is currently
being fitted out by Virgin Galactic. A combination
terminal and hangar, the building will house up to
two motherships and five spaceships. It will also have
lounge and observation spaces for ticket holders and
their guests. As of this writing, Richard Branson plans/
hopes to be on the first passenger-carrying flight
from Spaceport America during the spring of 2015.
The Spaceport America Terminal Hangar Facility was designed
to be environmentally friendly. Credit: URS/Foster + Partners.
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