Spaceport America: The world’s first commercial spaceport
In southern New Mexico, the world’s first commercial spaceport – Spaceport America – has been built as a launch facility for private space ventures, including Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism initiative. After a couple of decades of fundraising and dealing with state and local bureaucracy, the desert location was selected and construction began in 2009 and is now close to complete, at a total cost of more than $200 million. The flat terrain was ideal for the length of runway needed for horizontal take-offs and landings of spacecraft. The runway is currently 3km (10,000 ft) long,…