Space-tourism dream edges toward reality in New Mexico
British billionaire Richard Branson and his space-tourism company Virgin Galactic announced new steps Friday toward offering thrill rides into the low reaches of space for paying passengers, with the company immediately starting to move personnel and space vehicles from California to a launch and landing facility in the New Mexico desert.
Branson said Virgin Galactic’s development and testing program has advanced enough to make the move.
Virgin Galactic will be shifting operations to Spaceport America near the southern New Mexico town of Truth or Consequences as it prepares to begin for commercial service later this year. The manufacturing of the space vehicles by the company’s sister enterprise, The Spaceship Company, will remain based in Mojave, California.
“We are now ready to bring New Mexico a worldfirst, world-class spaceline,” Branson said. “Virgin Galactic is coming home to New Mexico where together we will open space to change the world for good.”
In February, a new version of Virgin Galactic’s winged craft SpaceShipTwo soared at three times the speed of sound to an altitude of nearly 56 miles in a test flight over Southern California, as a crew member evaluated the passenger experience.
New Mexico officials have eagerly anticipated the arrival of space tourism by Virgin Galactic for more than a decade. Taxpayers invested over $200 million in Spaceport America after Branson and then-Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.
While the announcement signals the final countdown to regular commercial service for paying customers, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides has declined to say how many more test flights must be conducted. Branson has said he would like to make his first suborbital flight this year as the venture’s first passenger on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20.