Virgin Galactic, an incipient space tourism venture utilizing five aircraft based on the X-Prize winning SpaceShip One design, has revealed its plans to occupy spaceport facilities to be built near the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. Funded partly by the state, an ebullient governor Bill Richardson predicted that the Southwest Regional Spaceport would generate over US $10 million in annual tax revenue and thousands of high-paying science jobs.
New Mexico was chosen over other sites considered by Virgin Galactic because of its sparsely used airspace, low-population density, and temperate climate which should allow spaceflights 340 days a year. Construction of the 27-square mile spaceport is projected to begin in 2007 and culminate in late 2009 or early 2010.

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