New Mexico lays out its spaceport plan

Ikonoklast

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10467451/

New Mexico is going to build a $225 million dollar space port for Virgin Galactic flights. Starting at only $200,000.00 it's not your average plane ticket. The initial flights will involve a low earth orbit and weightlessness.
So the space tourism industry has started. Where do you see private space flight in 20 years?

Linda

That's interesting. I saw a show from the Discovery Channel where they were talking about a similar project. I can't remember what it was called, but it was a competition with a million dollar prize to the person who could construct an aircraft which could carry 3 grown people out of the atmosphere and back. What I saw was a documentary of how one group constructed their plane and in the end they actually succeeded. From that it's obvious that it wont be long now until any normal person (with cash...) can travel further than most of us are now.
To tie something into this topic, I also found an article in my science illustrated about plans to construct a hotel on the moon. It's still a very lose plan, but the model they proposed was very interesting. It looks somewhat like a boomerang, where one of the two blades is grounded into the moon for the greatest amount of stability. After that, the designer had actually come up with solutions for all the necessary factors of life, such as air and food to supply a larger group of clients.
All I can say is that I'm happy to be young enough to probably be a part of the world when the revolution in aerotechnology happens.

Ikonoklast

What you saw was a special on the Ansari X Prize. 10 million dollars to the first team to take a team of 3 into low earth orbit, twice within a 14 day period. It was one by Spaceship One by Scaled Composite. Burt Rutan owns the company and the project was also funded by Paul Allen of Microsoft Fame. The spaceport in New Mexico is being built for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic the first private customer of Scaled Composite's Space Ship.

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/