Launch Pads at Spaceport America

Hotel Reservations Near Spaceport America

What Launches at Spaceport America

Spaceport America, formerly known as the Southwest Regional Spaceport, is a private commercial spaceport situated on 18,000 acres of State Trust Land in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin. It lies 45 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and approximately 20 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences.

This unique facility is designed specifically for commercial space endeavors and is owned and operated by the State of New Mexico through the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.

Here are some key details about Spaceport America:

Purpose: It is the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport, distinct from traditional airports or federal infrastructure. The site accommodates both vertical and horizontal launch aerospace vehicles and hosts various non-aerospace events and commercial activities. Virgin Galactic: On May 22, 2021, Spaceport America made history when Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity launched with three people aboard. This achievement marked New Mexico as the third U.S. state to send humans into space, following California and Florida.

Facilities: The spaceport features a terminal hangar facility, designed to support commercial space operations. It serves as a hub for companies like Virgin Galactic, UP Aerospace, Exos Aerospace, and Payload Specialties.

Launch History: The first rocket launch at Spaceport America occurred on September 25, 2006. Since then, it has become a hub for cutting-edge aerospace research and development.

Visitor Center: The visitor center in Truth or Consequences became accessible to the public in June 2015, offering private tours of the facility. After completing interior build out, the entire spaceport was deemed ready for operations in August 2019. Spaceport America stands as a testament to human ingenuity and our quest to explore the cosmos. Its role in advancing commercial space travel continues to shape the future of space exploration and innovation.

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, is the closet city to Spaceport America, home to the Virgin Galactic space flight company. Virgin Galatic offers sub orbital rides in a into space aboard a modified space vehicle that takes off and lands much like an airplane. Spaceport America is located about thirty miles from Truth or Consequences which is a real city with a bizarre name.

Learn more about Virgin Galactic at their website.

The current status of Virgin Galactic is that the company is focusing on the development and testing of a new fleet of rocket planes known as Delta-class ships. These new ships are expected to outperform the existing VSS Unity in terms of flight cadence, reusability, and revenue-earning potential.

Virgin Galactic has planned one more flight for VSS Unity, the Galactic 07 mission, which is slated for this spring. After this mission, Virgin Galactic will pause flights of VSS Unity to concentrate resources on completing the Delta-class ships, with commercial service targeted to begin in 2026.

Gateway to Space

The Gateway to Space building serves as a home for Virgin Galactic space vehicles, a hub for astronaut preparation, and the nerve center for flight operations.

The plan is to provide sub orbital space flights to paying passengers who wish to experience space travel. The space vehicles that will be used by Virgin Galactic look much like airplanes and will take off an land on runways.

The Virgin Galactic Space Craft

The space vehicle is very similar to an airplane, and is launched from the bottom of a larger airplane when its detached and its rockets take over. The vehicle then ascends to near space at the apogee of the earth's atmosphere where occupants experience several seconds of weightlessness. The vehicle then descends as a drone back to the launch site and lands much like an airplane.

Hotel Reservations Near Truth or Consequences, NM.

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