10 Years on, Spaceport Still Not Near Liftoff

It has cost New Mexico taxpayers $218.5 million to construct, and its anchor tenant, headed by a flamboyant billionaire, has yet to get off the ground.

Nonetheless, backers of Spaceport America remain confident the investment in the first site built specifically for commercial flights going into suborbital space will pay off.

“When it comes to the whole commercial space industry, I don’t think it’s a matter of if it’s going to happen, but when,” said Christine Anderson, executive director of Spaceport America, located essentially in the middle of nowhere in a desert basin in southern New Mexico—45 miles north of Las Cruces, 20 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences and just west of the White Sands Missile Range.

It’s been a little more than 10 years since the idea of constructing a spaceport was picked up during the administration of then-Gov. Bill Richardson.

The British-based company headed by Richard Branson isn’t the only commercial outfit operating out of Spaceport America. It just seems that way.

After all, Virgin Galactic is Spaceport’s anchor tenant and will pay between $25,000 and $75,000 to the Spaceport Authority (i.e., New Mexico taxpayers) for every flight it launches.

But when will that inaugural launch—promising to eventually take more than 700 well-heeled passengers and celebrities who have paid up to $250,000 to get blasted into suborbital space—ever happen?

Branson originally expected to lift off in 2012,but he’s delayed the launch date numerous times as Virgin Galactic engineers tackle the daunting issues involved in sending a rocket ship 62.1 miles above the earth’s atmosphere and returning it safely to Earth. Last month, Branson told David Letterman he’s expecting the first launch in “February or March of next year.”

Virgin Galactic is finishing up testing in Mojave, Calif., on the rockets that will power SpaceShipTwo.

“This is hard stuff and you want them to get it right,” Anderson said. “Particularly when they’re flying commercial passengers, you really want them to get it right.”

While Virgin Galactic still hasn’t started flights, it has started to pay its lease at Spaceport, which Anderson said comes to $1 million a year.

Branson isn’t the only billionaire at Spaceport. Elon Musk has dreams of colonizing Mars, and his SpaceX venture signed a three-year lease last year with Spaceport to test reusable rockets.

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