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The unveiling of the Spaceport America brand shines light on a visionary project many years in the making. New Mexico’s weather and wide-open spaces have been ideal for the aerospace industry since Robert Goddard, the Father of Modern Rocketry, began conducting research in Roswell in the 1930s. He was followed by Wernher von Braun in the 1940s, and NASA in the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, a group of like-minded individuals called, the Southwest Space Task Force, felt the impetus to take New Mexico’s space industry to the next level: commercial space and reusable launch vehicles. Based on years of study, they zeroed in on 27 square-miles of state-owned land, 45 miles north of Las Cruces as a location for an inland spaceport. When Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Rick Homans took office in 2003, they went to him and pleaded their case.
Homans then picked up the torch, presenting the idea of a New Mexico spaceport to Governor Richardson, negotiating with the X Prize Foundation to locate the X Prize Cup in New Mexico, spearheading legislation to finance the spaceport, and most recently, recruiting four aerospace mavericks — including Virgin Galactic — to New Mexico.
| Highlights of New Mexico Space History |
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1929 |
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Ridiculed for his unconventional ideas, Robert Goddard relocates from New England to Roswell, New Mexico, to build his experimental rockets in peace. He would become known as the Father of Modern Rocketry. |
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1946 |
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Wernher von Braun launches the V-2 rocket from the then-named White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.
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1954 |
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Col. Paul Stapp conducts a record breaking high-speed rocket sled test at Hollomen Airforce Base.
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1957 |
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The Manhigh high-altitude balloon test program flies from Hollomen Airforce Base pre-astronauts into the Stratosphere.
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1961 |
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HAM, a chimpanzee named for Hollomen Aero Medical Laboratory in Alamogordo, is the first chimp in space.
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1979 |
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White Sands Missile Range is named a landing site for NASA’s Space Shuttle. NASA missions continue through the eighties and nineties.
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2004 |
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New Mexico becomes the host for the X Prize Cup annual space flight exhibition.
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2005 |
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New Mexico hosts the first annual X Prize Cup in Las Cruces. As many as 20,000 people attend.
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2005 |
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Governor Richardson and Sir Richard Branson announce that Virgin Galactic will make New Mexico its world headquarters.
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2006 |
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Governor Richardson and the New Mexico legislature enact laws providing for the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.
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2006 |
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The Spaceport America brand is unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow.
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2007 |
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UP Aerospace successfully launches SL-2 rocket to the edge of space carrying commercial and scientific payloads.
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2007 |
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Spaceport America design concepts, created by URS/Foster + Partners, unveiled to the public.
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2007 |
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UP Aerospace successfully launches a Lockheed Martin test rocket system.
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