Ceremony marks spaceport launch
Posted at: 06/19/2009 1:24 PM
| Updated at: 06/19/2009 6:41 PM
By: TIM KORTE, Associated Press Writer
UPHAM, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico’s spaceport is under construction.
Gov. Bill Richardson and other dignitaries staged a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday at the remote spaceport site in Sierra County. It featured re-enactors dressed as Spanish colonials and the lift off of model rockets.
The crowd cheered after Richardson gave the thumbs up sign and a road grader cut into desert floor.
Richardson said now is the time for the United States to regain the lead in the space race and that the project makes New Mexico an international leader in the development of the commercial space industry.
Spaceport America is a taxpayer-funded project where tourists will pay $200,000 to take suborbital flights into space. The site also performs rocket launches for science experiments.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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