Richard Branson has been working hard on his space tourism company Virgin Galactic. He is the pioneer in the field and to maintain his leadership position he is rolling out top class infrastructure and is investing big time in them. The eccentric businessman inaugurated the world’s first-ever commercial spaceport in the New Mexico desert. It will now be the new home for the company Virgin Galactic and have the best of the facilities to make space tourism a reality. Mr. Branson broke a champagne bottle against a hanger building, while rappelling down the side of it as a symbolic gesture of the opening.
Spaceport America has been created to serve as the operating hub for Virgin Galactic. two WhiteKnightTwos and five SpaceShipTwos will be stationed at the spaceport. It will also house all of Virgins astronaut preparation facilities and mission control. There were some rumors in the market that there was a serious challenge posed to the company by new service providers offering similar services at the fraction of the cost. It turned out to be a hoax ultimately. The 150 people who have already booked for the inaugural flights also attended the event.
George Whitesides and Stephen Attenborough of Virgin Galactic and the second man on Moon, Buzz Aldrin were all in attendance. While addressing the guests at the event Mr. Branson assured the guests that rocket tests are going on and the mother ship is almost complete. The program can be realistically launched within 12 months. Virgin’s space initiative obviously enjoys great credibility among the people as the company has already sold some 430 tickets for space travel at a substantial price of $200,000 each and collected $86 million for the project.
Via gizmag
