The conceptual design for the terminal and hanger facilities by the URS/Foster team is being described as: “futuristic,” “organic shape,” “spectacular but very environmentally efficient landmark,” “breathtaking but also practical,” and “low-lying.”

Chairperson for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Kelly O-Donnell, said that the design “blends sensitivity of the environment, cutting-edge technology and a stunning image and shape when viewed from high above.”

The facilities include area for the airplanes and spaceships, along with customer training facilities, mission control center, public viewing area, and passenger lounges. The structure will use passive energy for heating and cooling and photovoltaic panels for electricity and water recycling. The terminal hall will have 50-foot ceilings and large windows facing the runway.

A drawing of the accepted design appears at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20587196/.

The 100,000-square-foot (9,290-square-meter) facility will house two transport airplanes and five spaceships, which are being designed by Burt Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites, in Mojave, California.

Owned by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the facility is located near Upham, New Mexico, United States, in southern Sierra County, which is in the southern part of the state. Upham is about 30 miles east of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and about 45 miles north of Las Cruses. Spaceport America was previously called the Southwest Regional Spaceport.

The basic concept for the 2.5-hour trip into space is: a transport airplane (also called the mother ship), called WhiteKnight Two, will carry a spaceship, called SpaceShipTwo, to an altitude of about 49,000 feet (or 9.3 miles [15 kilometers]); the two craft will separate from each other; SpaceShipTwo will launch itself into a suborbital flight with a maximum altitude of about 84 to 87 miles (135 to 140 kilometers) and WhiteKnight Two will return to base; and at the end of the mission SpaceShipTwo will descend into the atmosphere and land back at Spaceport America.

SpaceShipTwo has a top speed of about 2,500 miles per hour (4,000 kilometers per hour). It will carry six paying passengers and two pilots.

Officials with Virgin Galactic are expecting to bid the construction contract in the first half of 2008, with actual construction of Spaceport America commencing later in that year. Completion of the facility is expected to be at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010. According to officials of the Community Advisory Council, part of New Mexico’s Spaceport Authority, the target date for the first commercial flight is December 2009.

According to commissioners of the Spaceport America, the budget for Spaceport America is $198 million, with $140 million coming from state of New Mexico taxes and $58 million to be raised from local gross receipts taxes.

The cost of a ticket aboard a suborbital trip on SpaceShipTwo is about U.S.$200,000.


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