{"id":4667,"date":"2009-06-19T00:09:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T06:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/06\/spaceport-groundbreaking-begins-a-new-chapter\/"},"modified":"2009-06-19T00:09:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-19T06:09:00","slug":"spaceport-groundbreaking-begins-a-new-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/06\/spaceport-groundbreaking-begins-a-new-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaceport groundbreaking begins ‘a new chapter’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hundreds gather in Las Cruces on Thursday to celebrate construction of Spaceport America, which starts today with a groundbreaking ceremony<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>With contentious debates about how to fund Spaceport America<\/a> behind them, government officials gathered at New Mexico State University Thursday evening for the first of three celebrations of the facility\u2019s official groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> spoke at the celebration on the NMSU Horseshoe about the educational and economic development opportunities he predicts the spaceport will create in southern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to remember this day,\u201d he told the hundreds of people in attendance. \u201c\u2026 Today, we celebrate a new chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima<\/a> said today\u2019s groundbreaking ceremony will usher in a new era.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow is going to start a new space age,\u201d he said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The groundbreaking begins a $198 million construction project the state hopes to complete by late 2010. During Thursday\u2019s event, Richardson thanked lawmakers for approving a chunk of the funding and specifically named three counties — Do\u00f1a Ana, Sierra and Otero — which he thanked for pitching in with local tax increases.<\/p>\n

The reality, however, is that Otero voters narrowly shot down a local tax increase proposal that would have helped fund the spaceport.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the only contentious point that was glossed over during Thursday\u2019s celebration. Miyagishima was one of the few public officials in Do\u00f1a Ana County to oppose the local tax increase here that will provide about 25 percent of the spaceport\u2019s funding.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Richardson called the county\u2019s funding the \u201clynchpin\u201d that propelled the spaceport from an idea to reality. Without the funding from Do\u00f1a Ana County, construction on the spaceport would not be about to begin.<\/p>\n

\u2018New Mexico thinks big\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s all in the past. With today\u2019s groundbreaking, Richardson said Thursday, \u201cwe will have built the foundation that New Mexico no longer thinks small. New Mexico thinks big.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the theme of Thursday\u2019s celebration. Stephen Attenborough, Virgin Galactic\u2019s<\/a> chief executive officer, said several states courted the company, but New Mexico officials, led by Richardson, were the first and most persistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cooperation and the partnership that we\u2019ve experienced in the last few years has been wonderful, and it\u2019s what\u2019s going to make this happen,\u201d said Attenborough, whose company plans to ferry paying passengers into suborbital space from Spaceport America.<\/p>\n

George Nield, an associate administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the fact that New Mexico has earned one of only a handful of commercial spaceport licenses in existence says something about the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico has what it takes,\u201d he said, adding that the spaceport will \u201crepresent one of the great adventures of the 21st Century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nield told Attenborough that his company is \u201cin the driver\u2019s seat right now and you\u2019re taking us to tomorrow land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people right now from all over the world who are watching you in New Mexico,\u201d Nield said. \u201cThey\u2019re supporting you. They\u2019re rooting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the groundbreaking ceremony online<\/span><\/p>\n

Media outlets from around the world were in Las Cruces for Thursday\u2019s celebration. Many will also attend today\u2019s groundbreaking at Upham, located about 40 miles northeast of Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

The ceremony will be webcast live beginning at 11 a.m. on the spaceport\u2019s Web site<\/a>. The groundbreaking isn\u2019t open to the public, but there\u2019s another public celebration this morning in Truth or Consequences. <\/span>Richardson and other officials will gather at Ralph Edwards Park<\/a> in T or C beginning at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic also plans to fly WhiteKnightTwo<\/a> — the aircraft it plans to use to carry its passenger-ferrying spaceship into the sky — over Las Cruces, T or C and Spaceport America sometime between 10 a.m. and noon if the weather allows it. Attenborough said Thursday that it will be the longest voyage yet for the aircraft, which is housed in Mojave, Calif.<\/p>\n

In addition, he provided some new details about SpaceShipTwo<\/a>, the suborbital spacecraft Virgin plans to use to carry passengers into space. He said it\u2019s \u201cpretty much ready to fly,\u201d and awaiting testing in a hanger in Mojave. He said he hopes the spacecraft will take its first flight by the end of the year, and added that he is \u201cpretty sure that it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds gather in Las Cruces on Thursday to celebrate construction of Spaceport America, which starts today with a groundbreaking ceremony With contentious debates about how to fund Spaceport America behind them, government officials gathered at New Mexico State University Thursday evening for the first of three celebrations of the facility\u2019s official groundbreaking. Gov. Bill Richardson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}