Spaceport America

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Spaceport America (Also known as Southwest Regional Spaceport) is located on 27 square-miles of state-owned desert near Upham, New Mexico, 45 miles north of Las Cruces, and 30 miles east of Truth or Consequences. It was founded in 1990 by Dr. Burton Lee and Bernie McCune. Lee proposed the original spaceport concept, authored the initial business and strategic plans, and secured seed funding in the amount of $1.4 million through a congressional earmark with the assistance of Sen. Pete Domenici. The non-profit group called the Southwest Regional Spaceport Taskforce was created in 1992 by Dr. Ave Tombes, VP for Research and Economic Development at NMSU, in response to Lee's success in obtaining congressional support for the initiative. Other individuals who have played a key role in the development of the spaceport since 1992 include Lonnie Sumpter (Executive Director, New Mexico Spaceport Authority), Dr. Bill Gutman (NMSU/PSL), Hanson Scott, Lou Gomez, Len Sugerman and Margaret Gallaher Lee.

It is the first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport in the United States of America. The $225 million venture was announced in mid-December 2005 in Santa Fe. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic plans to launch its first flight from the spaceport in 2009. Virgin has already collected its $200,000 per-person fee from the first 100 passengers.

It was reported on April 4, 2006 that construction at the spaceport site had started, with the first unmanned launches expected in fall 2006. The Connecticut firm of UP Aerospace, with their SpaceLoft series of suborbital sounding rockets are expected to be among the first users of the new facilities.

Once completed, Spaceport America is expected to be the venue for the annual X Prize Cup suborbital spaceflight competitions.

The first launch from the site was the unsuccessful maiden flight of the SpaceLoft XL rocket, on September 25, 2006 The Spaceloft rocket veered off course before it entered space.

1 Maps & Directions
2 Companies Using the Spaceport
3 Future of Spaceport
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Maps & Directions

Google Maps satellite map of Upham, New Mexico
Topographic map of Upham, New Mexico from TopoZone
Photos of the first concrete launching pad at Spaceport America made during a trip in March 2006 by Jason Stevenson for an article for SEED magazine)
Photolog of trip to spaceport site by David Simmons (dated February 19, 2006, roughly one month prior to start of construction)

[edit] Companies Using the Spaceport

[edit] Future of Spaceport

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Cruces.US Article about the spaceport

"Spaceport America definitely shows a lot of promise. The million and billionaires investing their money in these ideas didn't get rich by making poor decisions. The government officials in our state are wise to invest money in what could provide much needed revenue and jobs in our area. The commercial spaceflight industry definitely can succeed. What we have yet to see is whether it will."

Despite some community support, many area citizens are worried that the space port will turn out to be "a dismal little joke on the side of the highway."