By Rene Romo
Albuquerque Journal APRIL 19, 2009

TRUTH or CONSEQUENCES — A decadeslong vision that once seemed closer to a Buck Rogers fantasy than a real-life economic venture is nearing a countdown in the southern New Mexico desert: Groundbreaking for Spaceport America is tentatively scheduled for June 19.

By December 2010, anchor tenant Virgin Galactic plans to fly its first passengers to the edge of space, and public and private advocates hope that's only the first stage of the spaceport's future.

Virgin Galactic, a bold venture of British businessman Sir Richard Branson, plans to whisk paying civilian astronauts 62 miles above the Earth's surface in a two-stage process.
A double-hulled mothership will carry a six-passenger, piloted capsule to an altitude of 48,000 feet. The released capsule will rocket on into space for a four-minute, free-floating view of Earth before gliding back to New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic's ticket price is $200,000 per person, and hundreds have already paid for the trip or placed deposits. They will prepare for their flights at the publicly financed, $198 million Spaceport America on a 28-square-mile swath of desert about 30 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences and 40 miles north of Las Cruces.

The spaceport, designed to blend into the desert landscape, lies on the edge of the famous Camino Real, where oxcarts were once the state of the art in travel technology.
Now, Branson's partner, Bert Rutan of California-based Scaled Composites, is in the latter phases of developing the two-stage Virgin Galactic craft that will take off from a Spaceport America runway. Glide tests of the passenger-carrying SpaceShipTwo are expected later this year.

Gov. Bill Richardson's administration, which brought in Branson as the chief tenant and put the spaceport on the launchpad, has said the project will "transform the economy of southern New Mexico."

The spaceport, Richardson has said, "will be a magnet for space companies to bring their businesses here, which will send a message far and wide that we embrace entrepreneurs, adventure and innovation."

Great potential
Steve Landeene, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, said that flying deep-pocketed passengers to the edge of space is just the start.
"This is far beyond just tourism," said Landeene, who has tried to spread the message that technologies used to carry passengers will have other applications — scientific, commercial and military — which can, in turn, spin off other business and expand economic opportunities.

For example:
• The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has signed an agreement with Virgin Galactic to do atmospheric sampling, Landeene said.
• The military could eventually use the technology for rapid deployment of forces around the globe.
• Project boosters envision spaceport tenants hosting low-cost launches of satellites into near-earth orbits for the military and other customers.

Landeene said the spaceport can be a high-profile vehicle to market New Mexico's professional and scientific assets, which in turn could draw other industries and money-making opportunities.

"Spaceport America is really about the strength of New Mexico as a whole," Landeene said.
Growing interest

Virgin Galactic has been the focus of attention, but other companies will be high-profile operators from Spaceport America.
Armadillo Aerospace and Rocket Racing Inc. announced a partnership last fall to provide vertically launched suborbital flights, at $100,000 per ticket, to civilian passengers seated in a see-through bubble cabin.

Lockheed Martin, which has a contract with Colorado-based rocket-maker UP Aerospace, signed on last spring to conduct low-cost launches of commercial payloads at Spaceport America.

"Obviously, this new industry is in its infancy," Landeene said. "I think the market will grow dramatically."

George Nield, associate administrator of NASA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, said there are at least half a dozen companies building and testing vehicles designed to take tourists to the edge of space.

With two leading firms — Virgin Galactic and Armadillo Aerospace — as anchor tenants of Spaceport America, the state is well-positioned to be a player, he said.
"New Mexico, with its spaceport project, will be right in the thick of things," Nield said.

Business spin-offs
"It's not a vision anymore," said Jim Hayhoe, co-chair of the Doña Ana County-oriented Commercial Space Taskforce and head of Spaceport America Consultants.
"There are lots of companies that are very, very interested in the spaceport and how they can get involved in it."

Hayhoe's group marketed the spaceport at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., last month. He has also visited Huntsville, Ala., home of the Army Missile Command, to recruit companies to move to New Mexico.

John Roberts, construction manager for G erald Martin General Contractor, which is overseeing the spaceport construction project, said his firm has started identifying companies interested in setting up shop in a TorC industrial development in connection with the spaceport.

State and local officials believe the spaceport could fuel more interest in space-oriented tourism in a state that already touts the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo; a UFO festival and privately run UFO museum in Roswell; White Sands Missile Range and the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque.

Spaceport Authority officials say tourists wishing to view rocket launches and Virgin Galactic flights will be bused to the spaceport from visitor centers planned for Hatch and TorC.
"There's a huge market for that kind of tourist," said Mike Stauffer, spokesman for the state Tourism Department, which has recently sponsored an alien-themed marketing campaign for the state.

"There's always been a fascination with flight and space and the final frontier and that kind of thing," Stauffer said. "And this would be the ultimate."
Beyond Buck Rogers

Las Cruces resident Ben Boykin, 79, the former chairman of the Southwest Regional Space Task Force and a retired aerospace engineer, said that back in the early '90s he and fellow project boosters felt they were swimming against a tide of skepticism.

"I think we were the catalyst to keep the dang thing going when nobody else was interested in it," he said.

Boykin and others long touted the advantages of a spaceport in southern New Mexico: a low population density that would reduce concerns about crashes; restricted airspace next to White Sands Missile Range that would allow more flights and launches; and a 4,700-foot elevation that would reduce fuel needs and costs and free up room for payloads.
But getting funding "was like pulling teeth," Boykin said.

The project's prospects began looking up in 1999, when the Legislature approved $1.8 million for planning. But the dream really turned the corner in 2005 when Richardson's administration reeled in Virgin Galactic as a long-term anchor tenant.

"I'm an old Buck Rogers fan," said Boykin, a former fighter pilot and chief engineer on the production of three space shuttles with Rockwell International.
"I just know it's going to happen. It's just a matter of time and money. I think it will catch on. I don't have any doubt about it."