New Mexico lays out its spaceport plan

Underground facilities?
Virgin Galactic's Whitehorn said the current concept for the New Mexico spaceport called for building most of the facilities underground, to preserve the desert landscape as well as to save water and energy. One artistic rendering showed electricity-generating solar arrays built in the shape of Virgin Galactic's new iris-shaped logo.

If geological problems ruled out going underground, "this same design can be highly efficient above ground as well," Whitehorn said.

Alex Tai, Virgin Galactic's director of operations, emphasized that the concepts were still subject to change. "We have no concrete ideas, we just know that we want to do something beautiful," he told reporters.

Whitehorn said up to three flights a day would take off from the New Mexico facility.

The Virgin spaceship system would be a scaled-up version of the White Knight carrier airplane and SpaceShipOne rocket plane designed by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif. "SpaceShipTwo" is currently being developed in Mojave, and eventually Scaled Composites will deliver five of the spacecraft under the terms of a partnership with Virgin.

Virgin Galactic This spaceport concept shows a runway in the New Mexico desert as well as Virgin Galactic's iris-themed logo. Most of the facilities would be underground.

Like SpaceShipOne, Virgin's rocket plane would be brought to high altitude by the carrier airplane, then dropped into the air for launch to heights greater than 62 miles (100 kilometers). Passengers would experience a few minutes of weightlessness, see a curving Earth beneath a black sky, and feel several G's of acceleration. The flight would serve as the climax of a $200,000 tour package.

Virgin says more than 38,000 people from 126 countries already have registered their interest in buying a ticket, and up to 100 "Founders" have committed to paying the full $200,000 fare upfront for the first available seats. One of those Founders, actress Victoria Principal, said during the Santa Fe briefing that her flight would be "a dream come true."

"We're on the era of a new form of transportation and a way of life that we've never known before," she said, "so I'm very proud and very thrilled to be a part of this, and I hope to share my space journey with you."

Why New Mexico?
Whitehorn said his company passed over other potential spaceport sites — including Mojave Airport — in part because of New Mexico's favorable climate, open airspace and low population density. The New Mexico site is projected to have weather suitable for launch on up to 340 days out of the year, Whitehorn said. In contrast, Mojave's winds and the airspace needs of nearby Edwards Air Force Base might interfere with Virgin's operations, he said.

The fact that few people live around the New Mexico spaceport site means there will be less risk to the "uninvolved public" — which should be reassuring to regulators as well as insurance providers, Whitehorn said.

Whitehorn said Mojave would continue to serve as Virgin Galactic's test and development center, because of Scaled Composites' role in building the planes as well as the Mojave area's decades-long prominence in flight testing.

In a statement, Scaled Composites congratulated Virgin Galactic and New Mexico on the new deal. "The new industry's expected volume will require multiple sites," Scaled Composites said, "and New Mexico's planned space-dedicated facility will be a key element in building this expanding business."

Mojave Airport manager Stuart Witt also paid tribute to New Mexico and Richardson's efforts. But Witt told MSNBC.com that his facility — which received its federal spaceport designation more than a year ago — would remain competitive in the commercial space race. On the issue of Mojave's winds, he pointed out that not one of SpaceShipOne's test flights had to be scrubbed due to weather.

"Mojave's in this business," he said. "We're not leaving this business."

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