Public can watch online and participate in celebrations in Las Cruces and T or C
The long-awaited groundbreaking for Spaceport America is taking place Friday, well over a year after state officials initially hoped it would happen.
The ceremony at Upham, the location where the spaceport is to be built, isn’t open to the public, but you can watch it online at spaceportamerica.com. It’s scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Friday.
In addition, there are public celebrations on Thursday in Las Cruces and Friday in Truth or Consequences that are scheduled to coincide with the groundbreaking.
On Thursday, Gov. Bill Richardson, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima and officials from Virgin Galactic will be among those present at the celebration in Las Cruces. The event, which begins at 5 p.m., will be held in Hadley Hall on the Horseshoe at New Mexico State University. It will include speeches, live music and displays of NASA and White Sands Missile Range space vehicles.
On Friday, before the groundbreaking, Richardson and other officials will gather at Ralph Edwards Park in T or C for a smaller celebration. That event, which begins at 8 a.m., will also include speeches by several officials.
Virgin Galactic also plans to fly WhiteKnightTwo — the aircraft it plans to use to carry its passenger-ferrying spaceship into space — over Las Cruces, T or C and Spaceport America sometime between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Friday, “weather and aircraft test flight schedule conditions permitting,” according to a news release from the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.
There have already been a handful of smaller, unmanned launches of commercial vehicles from a temporary facility at Spaceport America. Friday’s groundbreaking is for the real spaceport facility, which is estimated to cost $198 million and will include offices for Virgin, the spaceport’s anchor tenant, and the spaceport authority. It will also include hangars for Virgin and a massive runway.
Officials initially predicted a groundbreaking in early 2008, but clearing several hurdles — including obtaining funding from the Legislature and local communities, securing a commercial spaceport license from the Federal Aviation Administration and inking a lease agreement with Virgin — took longer than originally planned.
Officials now estimate that the spaceport will become operational late next year.