With Spaceport America getting its operator’s license from the Federal Aviation Administration and Virgin Galactic signing a 20-year lease with New Mexico, a dream that began 20 years ago is now coming true.

There already have been a number of small launches by UP Aerospace from Spaceport America since 2007, including tests for Lockheed Martin. Other companies lined up as Spaceport America customers include Microgravity Enterprises, Payload Specialties and a new partnership effort by Armadillo Aerospace and Rocket Racing Inc.

Because of protected airspace near White Sands Missile Range, southern New Mexico with its high elevation, temperate weather and sparsely populated desert was seen as a perfect place for a spaceport by a small group of Las Cruces visionaries.

Things finally began falling into place for a spaceport in southern New Mexico four years ago when the X PRIZE picked New Mexico to host a private space expo that turned the idea int o the world’s first spaceport built from scratch to support different private spaceflight ventures.

Meanwhile, Burt Rutan in California won the first $10 million X PRIZE through back-to-back flights into suborbital space with a system he created where the rocket is first flown into the sky by an aircraft and launched from mid-air. That success attracted English billionaire Richard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic spaceliners will use Rutan’s system.

New Mexico officials got Branson to agree to base his new company in the state and fly out of the spaceport, which won approval for the state to invest more than $100 million into creating what will become Spaceport America, estimated to cost a little more than $190 million.

The spaceport’s main structure will be Virgin Galactic’s hangar-terminal, and most of the state funding was contingent on the company making a binding commitment. Also, making the same requirement were officials from Do a Ana and Sierra counties, whose voters approved .25-percent increases in gross receipts taxes to support spaceport construction.

Though negotiations on the lease have been ongoing, finalizing the deal required the FAA licensing, which hinged on the successful completion of an Environmental Impact Statement. The final EIS “record of decision” was issued in December, followed by the FAA swiftly issuing Spaceport America its license.

The Virgin Galactic lease was signed on the last day of 2008 – the deadline set at several levels of local government to allow the spaceport funding to begin. According to the lease, the company plans to fly people daily into suborbital space by 2010. Overall, the lease is estimated to generate up to $250 million.

Establishing Virgin Galactic as the spaceport’s anchor tenant, the lease sets terms for land rent, use of the hangar-terminal and the 10,000-foot runway that the state will build. It also requi res Virgin Galactic to establish its world headquarters in New Mexico. Sweden’s spaceport also expects to offer Virgin Galactic flights, and there is interest to getVirgin Galactic to fly out of proposed spaceports from Scotland to Australia.

Virgin Galactic recently successfully flew the system’s carrier “mothership” that will loft the six-passenger rocket into the sky between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences for their ride to suborbital space – about 65 miles high.

“The signing of this agreement is a momentous day for our state and has cemented New Mexico as the home of commercial space travel,” said Gov. Bill Richardson when the lease deal was announced. “I want to thank Virgin Galactic for partnering with us to create a whole new industry that is going to transform the economy of southern New Mexico – creating thousands of jobs, generating money for education, boosting tourism and attracting other companies and economic opportunities to the area.”

“This is a historic moment for New Mexico, Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic. A lot of very dedicated people have been working long hours to secure this lease agreement,” said Spaceport America Executive Director Steve Landeene in the lease announcement. “Like several other companies, Virgin Galactic has realized the outstanding advantages offered by Spaceport America and the State of New Mexico.”

In the lease announcem ent, Virgin Galactic Projects and Operations Director Jonathan Firth described the company’s support of New Mexico and Spaceport America.
“The state has all the right elements for a successful commercial space operation including weather, clear airspace, beautiful scenery, great people and a fantastic location and design for Spaceport America.”

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn has promised to locate the rocket-engine assembly facilities in Las Cruces. During the GRT election debate in Sierra County, Whitehorn emphasized that the company is more about developing new spaceflight technology than just sending rich tourists into space. Lighter, stronger composite material development used in its spaceflight system will help create more fuel-efficient transportation vehicles of all kinds, he said.

Along with space tourism, Landeene said NASA is interested in using the fly-and-launch system, as well as the military. Spaceport America’s partnership with Virgin Galactic will help develop these additional uses of the system, he said, especially in light of Spaceport America’s proximity to the missile range that is becoming a primary test area for new technological advances in military combat, as well as Kirtland Air Force Base and Holloman Air Force Base.

Gerald Martin Construction Management of Albuquerque will oversee construction starting the first quarter of this year with the terminal-hangar scheduled for completion in 2010. The international architectural firm of URS/Foster + Partners is completing its final design for the terminal-hangar. Construction is scheduled for the first quarter of 2009 with the terminal and hangar facility scheduled for completion in 2010.

Road construction to Spaceport America – on former ranch land 45 miles north of Las Cruces and 30 miles east of Truth or Consequences – is already under way. Including the use of state trust land, other ranchland and land belonging to the Bureau of Land Management for a buffer zone, Spaceport America encompasses 27 square miles of mostly undeveloped desert and rangeland dubbed by early explorers a s the Jornada del Muerto – “the Journey of Death.”

But it’s also the desert’s history steeped in the legends of the Old West that is expected to be used in the marketing of a whole experience for the customers – passengers and users – of Spaceport America, according to Landeene. The idea is to make space tourists stay longer in New Mexico than the day of the flight and to attract related industry. Aerospacerelated jobs developed locally will inspire more students to become interested in studying math and science while in school, according to Landeene. That in turn will help New Mexico keep its best and brightest from leaving the state for better work, he said.

Upon his first meeting with Richardson, Landeene said the governor asked him if he knew what New Mexico’s biggest export was. It was a rhetorical question that Landeene couldn’t have given a correct answer to, because the answer was “its children .”Too many young people leave New Mexico to find better-paying work, Richardson told Landeene, and he sees the spaceport as a significant project to change that.