{"id":39142,"date":"2022-08-02T20:59:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T02:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/virgin-galactic-planning-an-astronaut-campus-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:48:10","slug":"virgin-galactic-planning-an-astronaut-campus-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/virgin-galactic-planning-an-astronaut-campus-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic planning an astronaut campus in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c2612382-245b-4b76-b356-2ae1faccde06&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Virgin Galactic\u2019s Spaceship Unity and Mothership Eve. After reaching nearly 50,000 feet, Unity will be released and drop for a moment or two before its rocket motor ignites to send the craft on a steep climb toward space. (Virgin Galactic via AP)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Virgin Galactic\u2019s Spaceship Unity and Mothership Eve. After reaching nearly 50,000 feet, Unity will be released and drop for a moment or two before its rocket motor ignites to send the craft on a steep climb toward space. (Virgin Galactic via AP)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">onset<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SIERRA COUNTY, N.M. \u2013 Aerospace and space travel company Virgin Galactic announced Tuesday that it plans to build an astronaut campus and training facility in southern New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Company officials said in a statement that it has secured land for the facility outside Truth or Consequences near the location of Spaceport America.<\/p>\n<p>They said the planned facility will include training facilities, accommodations, tailored experiences, an observatory, wellness center and dining option and it will only be available to future astronauts of Virgin Galactic and some of their guests.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no immediate word on when construction of the project will begin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to welcome the next chapter of Virgin Galactic\u2019s continued investment in New Mexico,\u201d Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cThe new astronaut campus in Sierra County will spur further economic activity for New Mexico, creating more local jobs and attracting new visitors and spending to the area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Virgin Galactic announced it had selected the Phoenix suburb of Mesa as the site where it will assemble its next class of rocket ships with the facility capable of producing up to six spaceships per year.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the Delta class suborbital spaceplanes will be designed to fly weekly, supporting the company\u2019s target of 400 flights annually from Spaceport America.<\/p>\n<p>They said the first of the spaceships is expected to start payload flights in late 2025 with private astronaut flights in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Galactic\u2019s Spaceship Unity and Mothership Eve. After reaching nearly 50,000 feet, Unity will be released and drop for a moment or two before its rocket motor ignites to send the craft on a steep climb toward space. (Virgin Galactic via AP)onset SIERRA COUNTY, N.M. \u2013 Aerospace and space travel company Virgin Galactic announced Tuesday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84233,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39142\/revisions\/84233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39142"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}