<![CDATA[Gizmodo: spaceport america]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: spaceport america]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/spaceportamerica http://gizmodo.com/tag/spaceportamerica <![CDATA[First Spaceport Ever Begins Construction this Friday]]> This newly-released image shows the sun rising over Spaceport America. It hasn't been built yet, but construction starts this Friday. It will be the beginning of the real future, the stuff dreams are made of.*

Spaceport America will be the first spaceport in history, and it will host commercial operations by private space travel companies, like Virgin Galactic.


I'm sure that—in a few centuries—this structure will be buried under multiple layers belonging to another huge structure: A giant spaceport—one of many in the world—in which massive spacecrafts will be lifting off and arriving from trips from the Moon, Mars, Titan, and Europa. Or at least, I hope that's what will happen.

If you are around, you can attend the historic groundbreaking ceremony—the first step in its construction—on Friday, June 19, 2009. Check the link for details. [Spaceport America]

* Apparently, the stuff dreams are made of look like vaginas from the air. Rubber vaginas.

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<![CDATA[Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America Gets FAA Green Light]]> It becomes less and less a future fever dream every day: Spaceport America in Las Cruces, NM, Virgin Galactic's future home, has gotten FAA approval to begin construction.

The design has been set since September 2007, but now that an environmental impact assessment has been passed, construction can now begin. Branson is banking on the rich still paying for a suborbital flight in our current economic clime, and yeah, I probably believe him.

Virgin Galactic and its SpaceShipTwo/White Knight launch system will be the main attraction, but the spaceport's license for vertical and horizontal takeoffs can be used by any number of clients willing to lease some launchpad time. [Ars Technica]

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