Spaceport America

• Spaceport America is world’s first commercial spaceport in the deserts of New Mexico in America. Its runway is complete and space tourists are expected to take flight in 18 months. It is world’s first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport,

Spaceport America was conceptualized by Dr. Burton Lee, of Stanford University, in 1990. Construction started in 2006. Virgin Galactic of the Virgin Group is the major tenent along with UP Aerospace & Payload Specialties. The Virgin Chief , British industrialist Richard Branson likely to be the first space tourists to take off from the Spaceport America.

Spaceport America is stretching across a flat dusty plain 45 miles north of Las Cruces, the runway is designed to support almost every aircraft in the world.

British billionaire Richard Branson’ s Virgin Galactic will launch its commercial space tourism venture from the spaceport in 2012. More than 450 people have purchased tickets to fly with Virgin Galactic. Tickets for rides aboard WhiteKnightTwo cost $200,000. The two-and-half-hour flights will include about five minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth that until now only astronauts have experienced