London, Oct 24 (IANS) The world's first commercial spaceport has opened its runway in the New Mexico desert in the US, bringing the dream of mass tourism in space a step closer.
Spaceport America is the world's first facility designed specifically to launch commercial spacecraft.
Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company set up by Sir Richard Branson, plans to operate flights from the spaceport with the first flights taking place within the next 18 months.
The opening of the two-mile (3.2-km) runway was marked with a fly-past of an aircraft carrying SpaceShip Two, Virgin Galactic's rocket powered vehicle that will carry paying tourists to the edge of space and back, reports the Telegraph.
It comes less than two weeks after Virgin Galactic made the first solo flight of SpaceShip Two, another significant milestone.
Sir Richard said he expects flights for space tourists to begin in nine to 18 months, and he will be among the first passengers.
"Today is very personal, as our dream becomes more real," Branson said. "People are beginning to believe now."
Until now, space travel has been limited to astronauts and a handful of wealthy people who have shelled out millions to ride Russian rockets to the international space station.
Stretching across a flat dusty plain 45 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the new runway is designed to support almost every aircraft in the world, day-to-day space tourism and payload launch operations.
Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant of the taxpayer-funded $198 million spaceport and plans to use the facility to take tourists on what will first be short hops into space.
Virgin Galactic's White Knight Two - the special jet-powered mother ship that will carry SpaceShip Two to launch altitude - also made an appearance Friday, passing over the spaceport several times before landing on the new runway.
Tickets for suborbital space rides aboard SpaceShip Two cost $200,000. The two-and-half hour flights will include about five minutes of weightlessness.
Some 380 people have made deposits totalling more than $50 million, Virgin Galactic officials said.