Posted 10.17.2011 at 1:42 pm
4 Comments
Virgin Galactic Spaceport
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic and its thoroughly British CEO, Richard Branson, announced another milestone on their way to opening the world's first commercial spaceport: Construction is finished, and the terminal and hangar have been dedicated.
Virgin seems to be updating us fairly frequently, with equally frequent dedication ceremonies, on the progress of the spaceport. Just one year ago, they toasted the completed runway. But now, construction on Spaceport America, located a remote section of desert in New Mexico's Sierra County, seems to be finished. The hangar and terminal will be home to the new shuttle, mission control, and a waiting area for soon-to-be astronauts.
The company expects to begin test flights next year.
[Virgin]
4 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
July 2013: The Future Of Flight
The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.
.jpg)
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- Green Light For Plan To Build World's Tallest Building At Record Speed
- Why The U.S. Won't Dare Kill Edward Snowden With A Drone Strike
- U.S. Government Uses Early Knowledge Of Microsoft Bugs For Spying
- Congress Was Not Really Briefed On PRISM
- A Concise History Of The NSA's Online Spying Program PRISM
- Who's More Powerful, China Or The United States? [Infographic]
- Why Government Phone Spying Is Really About Big Data
- Watch This Insane Helicopter-Bike Fly Around
- Designers Spruce Up The Government's Crappy PowerPoint
- Laser Time Cloak Hides The Fact That An Event Ever Happened
Most Emailed
Technology
- Nursing Home Tracks Residents' Every Move
- Researchers Can Now "Hear" The Exact Shape Of A Room
- Designers Make City Noise Actually Sound Good
- All Of America's Waterways On One Map [Infographic]
- The 6 Most Important Things We Learned From Edward Snowden's Guardian Q&A
- Stanford's Artificial Neural Network Is The Biggest Ever
- New DNA Fog Covers Crime-Scene Suspects With Evidence
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class Of 2013
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class of 2013
- Google Reveals Massive Iranian Phishing Scheme
Most Viewed
Technology
- Nursing Home Tracks Residents' Every Move
- Researchers Can Now "Hear" The Exact Shape Of A Room
- Designers Make City Noise Actually Sound Good
- All Of America's Waterways On One Map [Infographic]
- The 6 Most Important Things We Learned From Edward Snowden's Guardian Q&A
- Stanford's Artificial Neural Network Is The Biggest Ever
- New DNA Fog Covers Crime-Scene Suspects With Evidence
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class of 2013
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class Of 2013
- Google Reveals Massive Iranian Phishing Scheme
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
.JPG)
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
cool, but we really need orbital flights, go SpaceX!
If people will pay for suborbital then give them that. It will finance efforts to help them put up tethers, or simply finance more powerful boosters for these planes. SpaceX is fine, but all they are doing is using fairly conventional rocket technology. It's nothing revolutionary.
You're right it isn't revolutionary, but they are doing it much cheaper than NASA ever even tried to. We needed someone to intervene, and this could help us tons.
I am happy that both orbital and sub-orbital flights are being worked on. I think that Mr Musk and Mr. Branson are both moving their fields of business forward in a manner is highly respectable.