Billionaire Wants to Build Spaceport to Send Tourists to Space

Would you be willing to pay about $200,000 to take a suborbital trip into space and be weightless for five minutes? Billionaire Richard Branson is counting on wealthy people being attracted to the idea, and he’s already got the launch site picked out. Branson already has plans sketched out for Spaceport America, a $198 million launch complex to be built in the New Mexico desert about 60 miles north of Las Cruces.

The spaceport, if it succeeds, will be funded by local, state, and federal money. The first rocket flights may be launched as early as 2009, and the company will eventually offer suborbital trips where tourists can enjoy five minutes of weightlessness. Planners say that the spaceport may eventually offer trips into orbit, and perhaps even beyond.

New Mexico government officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson, who is running for President, are hoping for the spaceport to provide a much-needed boost to New Mexico’s economy. Rick Homans, New Mexico’s economic development director, said that if it is built, the project will probably brand New Mexico as "the birthplace of the second space age."

The 27-square-mile site is located near the White Sands Missile Range, where the United States launched its first rocket following World War II. The plans for Spaceport America call for a 10,000-foot runway that can handle the types of airplanes used to take spaceships up to 60,000 feet, where they can be launched. There are also plans for an area to launch rockets vertically, as well as various hangars and terminals adjoining the runway.

But the residents of the poverty-stricken ranching area where the spaceport is being planned are bristling at the idea that their taxes will be relied upon to fund entertainment for rich folks. On Tuesday, the residents of Dona Ana County voted on a proposed quarter-cent sales tax increase, which would raise a projected $49 million for the project. The money is critical to the success of the project, and out of 17,168 votes cast, the increase was approved by an extremely narrow margin of only 238 votes. About 540 provisional votes still remain to be counted, and a final count is expected by Thursday.

Carol Garcia, a 52-year-old resident of Las Cruces, told reporters, "It’s just a rich man’s dream that he needs us to help pay for. If it’s your dream, build it yourself." George Gandara, a 63-year-old business owner in Las Cruces, agrees. "I do not see any reason that every time I buy a dress for my wife I should have to pay more taxes," said Gandara.

Homans said that he had expected a wider margin of victory to ensure the project’s continuation. "On one hand, there is a healthy skepticism and a great deal of caution about the project," he said. "And on the other hand, there is a lot of optimism for what it could do for the state." Homan explained that with Branson’s plans, "the premise is that once space becomes accessible, then all sorts of things will happen in space and on the moon, and there’s going to be a whole industry that supports it." Government officials hope that the project will stimulate manufacturing and research in nearby cities such as Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces.

If the tax increase is approved and the plan goes forward, Branson’s Virgin Galactic would move its headquarters from London to New Mexico, along with about 200 employees. A spokesman for Virgin Galactic in London said that the company will not issue any formal response to the vote until all the ballots are counted. But according to Homas, if the measure is defeated, the project will most likely be doomed. "Realistically, the project would unravel, very likely," he said.

In announcing his plans for the spaceport, Branson said that he chose the southern New Mexico desert for building his dream because of its weather and the vast expanse of open desert, and the support of state government didn’t hurt, either. "We’re about to embark on a wonderful adventure," Branson said in 2005. "We’re going where no one has gone before. There’s no model to follow, nothing to copy."