Located about 30 miles east of the town of Truth or Consequences (great name) lies the "world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport"- Spaceport America (formerly known as the Southwest Regional Spaceport).

Yep, I used the word "spaceport". That's fun.

The spaceport was first purposed by a Stanford professor in 1990, and there were a number of politicians that secured funding and encouraged participation by outside commercial interests to solidify the prospects of this ambitious project (this was back when public servants still took pride in completing tasks).

The X Prize Cup was held here in 2003. In 2006, Virgin Galactic announced they would make their headquarters in New Mexico, and the spaceport's name was changed to Spaceport America (f**k yeah!).

While Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant for the spaceport, the plan is for multiple space travel groups to use the facility. Current other tenants include the Rocket Racing League and Microgravity Enterprises, Inc.

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Located at this location since 1965, the Explorers Club is a group of professionals dedicated to the advancement of field research.

Members of the group were the first explorers to the North Pole (Robert E. Peary & Matthew Henson in 1909), first to the South Pole (Roald Amundsen in 1911), first to the summit of Mt. Everest (Sir Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay in 1953), and first to the surface of the Moon (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins in 1969).

Today, the off-world colony group known as Mars One hold regular meetings to plan for a proposed manned mission to Mars in 2025.

Source: New Yorker, April 25, 2014

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On January 27, 1967, NASA was running a test launch for their first manned space mission- Apollo 1. Due to design flaws in the initial construction (and the use of pure oxygen in the capsule), there was a fire during the test that claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.

The site was used to successfully test a number of Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets, but was eventually razed. The launch platform remains as a memorial with a plaque that lists the time of the accident and the names of the astronauts, as well as the following inscription:

They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.

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Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is in the rocket game as well. His company, Blue Origin, has a launch site in west Texas near the town of Van Horn.

Specializing in VTVL (Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing) technology, the team has been making advances in suborbital rocketry (video here).

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