First "spaceport" gets FAA approval in U.S.

William Atkins
Saturday, 20 December 2008 19:44

Science - Space

Spaceport America, in New Mexico, has been granted a license for vertical and horizontal launches from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The facility will initially provide suborbital space flights for paying customers and other payloads.


The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) specifically granted the license for Spaceport America on Monday, December 15, 2008. The AST approves all commercial rocket launch operations within the United States.

The board of directors of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) runs Spaceport America, which is the first FAA-licensed commercial spaceport in the United States.

The NMSA was also granted approval of its environmental impact study for the Spaceport America project.

Although the facility has gained FAA-approval and environmental-impact approval, it still needs to gain a signed lease agreement with at least one company.

That final hurdle has yet to be signed (as of the publication of this article), but is expected to be completed by the end of 2008 with Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic, headed by Sir Richard Branson, plans to operate out of the $198-to-225-million facility.

Branson's start-up venture has already secured $200,000 from its first 100 passengers, with the first passenger being tentatively scheduled sometime in 2009. Virgin Galactic also expects to launch non-passenger payloads out of Spaceport America.

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