The New Mexico Spaceport Authority is a non-governmental panel, appointed by the Governor of New Mexico, whose members represent the public sector in the development and construction of Spaceport America, a facility, under construction as of March 2011, that is expected to be the first privately-operated active spaceport in the United States.
Spaceport America is partly funded by locally generated sales tax revenues; and United States state and federal income tax law, as well as the laws and customs that govern the sale of investment bonds, required that a public authority handle the debt finance of the $209 million project. As of March 2011, it was the current intent of New Mexico that the operations of Spaceport America be overseen by Virgin Galactic, a component of the Virgin Group of global companies operated by Sir Richard Branson. Virgin Galactic's official status is "anchor tenant" of the spaceport.
On February 28, 2011, the governor of New Mexico appointed Christine Anderson as executive director of the Spaceport Authority.[1]
As of March 2011, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority had not yet actually overseen any launches of spacecraft into sub-orbital spaceflight or into earth orbit.
In late April 2011, the Authority announced that its budget for fiscal year 2012 had been reduced by 57 percent.[2]