Spaceport America reaches for the stars

摘要

I PRESS my face up to the window as the plane descends towards Albuquerque airport and fantasise I'm floating down from space. Future passengers landing at the nearby Spaceport America will probably be treated to a similar view: terrain gashed with canyons, mountains puckered like prunes, and white dunef ields of powdered gypsum. The spaceport is the first built for the express purpose of ferrying paying customers to the edge of space, It's a taste of the spine-tingling future envisioned by today's nascent commercial space firms. Yet one of its nearest towns, Truth or Consequences, feels like a ghost town, with many businesses shuttered. Is this really the future playground of well-heeled space tourists?