October 14, 2011

NASA books 1st flight from New Mexico spaceport

(AP) -- NASA has booked a charter suborbital flight from Virgin Galactic's spaceport operations in southern New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic announced Thursday that the agreement calls for to charter a full flight from the company, and it includes options for two additional flights. If all options are exercised, the contract is worth $4.5 million.

Virgin Galactic says each mission allows for up to 1,300 pounds of .

Earlier this week, Virgin Galactic announced it hired former NASA executive Michael Moses as vice president of operations.

Virgin Galactic is owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS. It's on track to be the world's first commercial spaceline and hopes to launch its first flight within the next year from Spaceport America, about 50 miles north of Las Cruces.

©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Citation: NASA books 1st flight from New Mexico spaceport (2011, October 14) retrieved 4 June 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2011-10-nasa-1st-flight-mexico-spaceport.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

New Mexico to be site of spaceport
0 shares

Feedback to editors
Load comments (2)