Aerial view of Spaceport America

Richard Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will eventually operate out of the newly renamed Spaceport America, a $225 million facility to be built in New Mexico. The site, previously called the Southwest Regional Spaceport, sits 45 miles north of Las Cruces.

Branson said last week that the company is on track to launch suborbital flights to space tourists in 2008 out of the Mojave Desert and had sold tickets to its first 150 passengers. Flights will cost $200,000 per person. In 2010, Branson expects to move the venture permanently to the New Mexico site.