spacetoday.net: Virgin Galactic dedicates spaceport terminal building

Posted: Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 9:07 AM ET (1307 GMT)
Spaceport America terminal building (J. Foust)

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic formally dedicated the terminal building that will host its suborbital spaceflights in New Mexico in a ceremony on Monday. The building, formally named the "Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space", will serve as a hangar for Virgin's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft and WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft as well as its operations center at Spaceport America. The building is the centerpiece of the $209-million spaceport built by the state north of Las Cruces. Monday's ceremony, attended by 150 of Virgin Galactic's 455 customers as well as other dignitaries, featured a captive carry flight of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Virgin has not set a schedule for when flight operations from the spaceport will begin, but expect to begin powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo from Mojave, California, early next year.