Ok I should have read up before I rushed to judgment. It looks like New Mexico is funding the port as economic development and Virgin is leasing space in it like an airline.

Virgin already has 45,000 requests to be astronaut tourists. That's potentially 9 billion dollars at $200,000 per ticket. If this idea flys and there is a state tax per trip that could be a good investment.

Later in the article it says:

"The New Mexico Space Authority, a state agency created to develop commercial space travel, will provide funding for the $31 million project. It expects to put the facility out for construction bids in the first half of 2008 and to break ground that same year."

So let me get this straight. Rich people are being given 31 million dollars by tax payers to fund a thrill ride for rich people?

Why are capitalists such socialists?

ANOTHER late headline folks.

This spaceport has been talked about quite a bit here in the southwest.

Where has the HP been?

You still can't afford it.

How much CO2 does one of these "transports" put in the atmosphere every time it goes up?
And what is the contribution of this business to the advancement of humankind?

Open space to private enteprises and they will pollute it as much as they have polluted the earth...

Branson claims that he will have fuel that is non-oil based within a year or so. He has a reward of $23 Million for anyone inventing a new Bio-Fuel. Bedpan or vagina? You decide. Haha

It must be really really nice to have so much spare cash on hand that you can spend it on a giant space bedpan. the U.S. economy's going the way of Brazil and still they're talking spaceports and manned missions to Mars. Eh, what do I care. Its not MY tax money, my lifetime tax contribution was already spend during the last... 15 seconds In Iraq.

so this guy calls and says "i'd like to lick your vulva". the ditzy housewife says "oh, heehee, i drive a mercedes and my husband washes it once a week!".

geez - is that sir norman foster? definitely bedpan-like.

Is This joint gonna be called Spaceport Vulva I?

Its great that in a country with untold millions without Heatlh Insurance, children hungry, and the elderly strugling, that some people can afford trips to outer space.

Richard Branson should be castrated and his balls shoved down his throat.

Anther example of how utterly disgusting the United States has become.

Talk about "genital architecture"!
siri@legitgov.org
www.legitgov.org

This is a good thing. Let those with money support the projects they want to see move forward. The Space agency has been hindered by Government control for the past 20 odd years.

Maybe now we can finally get the flying cars they promised my father 50 years ago.

If this was run by the Government, they would have taxed the Rich people to pay for poor, non-resident workers to fly in a spaceship built by the company that promised to do it for the "cheapest" amount of money.

By the way...hope their bathrooms are "safe". I hear certain elected officials will have plenty of time on their hands now.

I know a place out in the Nevada desert where $200,000 will buy a lot more than 2.5 hours of thrills.

i live just a few miles from this place. there are some rabid supporters of this venture around here whose lives might be made richer by it, but most think it's just smoke and mirrors. personally, i think firing rich people into space is a good idea. oh wait, these are round trips? never mind.

With the effects of Peak Oil on the horizon, where the hell are they going to get the necessary petrofuel to run this operation?