Spaceport launch: 6 weeks and counting

KRQE(29-06-2006)
http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?RECORD_KEY%5BNews%5D=ID&ID%5BNews%5D=15992

Spaceport launch: 6 weeks and counting

ALBUQUERQUE -- It's official: New Mexico's new Spaceport will see its first commercial rocket launch on Monday, Aug. 14.
The private firm UP Aerospace will launch its Spaceloft X-l with more than 50 experiments on board. It will take just 90 seconds to reach the official boundary of space 62 miles above the earth.

The rocket will blast off from the Spaceport in Sierra County, fly about 70 miles into space and then touch down on the Army's White Sands Missile Range.

The state of New Mexico will use data from the flight to get the Spaceport certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and other companies plan to eventually launch space tourists from a massive, quarter-billion-dollar complex to be built at the site.