Posted on 10/17/2011 8:56:26 PM PDT by smokingfrog
With his usual flare, British billionaire Richard Branson rappelled from a balcony, shook up a big bottle of champagne and took a swig while christening the world's first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport on Monday.
Branson's Virgin Galactic will stage its commercial space tourism venture from Spaceport America in a remote patch of desert in southern New Mexico.
Branson was joined by Gov. Susana Martinez, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and scores of would-be space travelers at the terminal-hangar for the dedication. It had been nearly a year since Branson was in New Mexico to celebrate the completion of the runway.
"The building is absolutely magnificent," he said. "It is literally out of this world, and that's what we were aiming at creating."
With the spaceport and mothership completed, the company is now finalizing its rocket tests.
"We're ticking the final boxes on the way to space," Branson said.
He hopes enough powered test flights of Virgin Galactic's sleek spacecraft can be done by the end of 2012 to start commercial suborbital flights from the spaceport soon after.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
*NM ping*
So, he normally carries a flare with him?
"Journalists" these days...
BTW, didn't he already open the spaceport for business a couple of months ago, flare or not, or was that just a dress rehearsal?
The flare might be a vuvuzuela he had with him or just a roadside flare to light his way down the rope on which he rappelled.
If he had brought flair with him that would have been fabulous!!! LOL!
The spaceship factory was completed about a month ago.
This was the dedication for the spaceport.
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