New Mexico Plans First 'Spaceport' For Space Travel

WSJ.com - By LAURA MECKLER : "New Mexico, long rumored to be a favored landing spot for UFOs and aliens, now wants to use taxpayer money to build a launching pad for space tourists.

The state plans to spend some $200 million to build a "spaceport" in the desert, envisioning a day when regular people board commercial spaceships and take flight. A private venture called Virgin Galactic, which hopes to offer commercial space flight as soon as 2008, plans to base its operations at the new facility.

The deal brings together two ambitious public figures: Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson, known for his U.K.-based airline and his publicity stunts, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the former diplomat and congressman often mentioned as a Democratic presidential candidate. The two plan to make the announcement next Wednesday in Santa Fe, N.M.

"We see a whole new space industry, and we are at the ground floor of that industry," said Rick Homans, chairman of the recently formed New Mexico Spaceport Authority and the secretary for economic development.

The spaceport will be built just west of the White Sands Missile Range, 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces. The area now has two ranch families, several roads and "a lot of open space," said Mr. Homans.

Entrepreneurs and space buffs have pitched the notion of commercial space travel for many years. But last year's successful flight of SpaceShipOne -- the first privately built vehicle to reach space and the brainchild of aerospace engineer Burt Rutan -- showed that the technology had advanced far enough to begin planning for the possibility of actual travel.

SpaceShipOne proved that a space vehicle could take off like a plane, use rockets to penetrate the upper reaches of the atmosphere and then return and land on a conventional runway.

Still, a variety of regulatory and other hurdles remain before space travel can become a reality. It is unclear, for example, how operators would buy insurance to guard against accidents. And before taking passengers aloft, the Federal Aviation Administration must certify that the spacecraft is safe enough -- for passengers, crew and others on the ground.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said in an interview that his company hopes to begin testing in 2007 and hopes the first commercial flight will launch in late 2008 or early 2009. The company envisions two to three suborbital flights per day by 2011, taking passengers as high as 65 miles above the earth.

The company is asking $200,000 per flight per person. Flights will last 2½ hours and include five minutes of full weightlessness, with passengers tethered to their seats, he said. Approved passengers would need less than a week of training, he said.

Mr. Whitehorn said the project is much more than a high-priced thrill ride. "It's very easy to see it as a toy or a plaything. It's an investment in itself," he said.

He said 150 people have signed contracts and put down at least $20,000 toward their space trip. The company now has some $11 million in the bank, he said.

The $200 million investment will be used for the spaceport building itself as well as roads and utilities to support it, state officials said. The project depends on money from the federal government that has yet to be appropriated, and voters in counties near the site must approve a sales tax increase. If fully funded, the state envisions the facility operating much like an airport, with public money funding the structure and companies that fly out of it paying user fees.

Space passengers won't pay taxes to New Mexico, but the state foresees profit from industries that locate near the spaceport to support the venture, and from tourists who visit as part of their space trip, Mr. Homans said. A number of other states, including California and Florida, have considered building spaceports.

Congress agreed last year that space travel shouldn't be subject to the same rigorous safety standards applied to normal commercial aviation and directed the Federal Aviation Administration to write regulations governing the industry.

In February, the FAA circulated guidelines to generate discussion. Among the principles: informed consent, whereby would-be passengers know that space travel involves serious risk before they commit to it. Operators might have to disclose the accident history of the space vehicle. Other suggestions included that craft include life support systems and that crew have FAA pilot's licenses."