Get extra lift from AOPA. Start your free membership trial today! Click here

Spaceport launches new look, plans expanded tours

spaceport america

The Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space terminal hangar building, Spaceport Operations Center dome and Spaceport America Spaceway (Runway). Image courtesy of Spaceport America.

Spaceport America, the facility being developed in New Mexico as a gateway to outer space for private enterprise, has launched a new web site, and a logo designed to introduce the facility to the world.

Construction of the world’s first commercial passenger spaceport is well underway, and guided tours will be expanded later this summer to include the new space operations center. Virgin Galactic is well into its commercial passenger spacecraft test program, has hired its first pilot, and hopes to launch the first passengers by the end of 2013. Spaceport America will serve as the launch and recovery center for those future flights.

“Spaceport America is helping a new American Revolution take place in the commercial space industry, and what better time to showcase our new brand than the Fourth of July,” said Christine Anderson, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority in a news release.

The spaceport announced that it had obtained a temporary occupancy certificate for its operations center, a dome-shaped building being built adjacent to Virgin Galactic’s base.

The logo designed to establish the Spaceport’s brand identity depicts two stars, in the national colors, coming together in a “collaboration of innovative efforts to propel man’s reach into space,” Anderson said.  “Once phase two construction is completed in 2013, we will have created a whole new kind of visitor experience, and the new Spaceport America brand identity and website are key steps along the path of offering the world an invitation to space."

Dan Namowitz

Dan Namowitz

Dan Namowitz has been writing for AOPA in a variety of capacities since 1991. He has been a flight instructor since 1990 and is a 35-year AOPA member.
Topics: Aviation Industry, Mexico, Travel

Related Articles