Space exploration has always been a phallic endeavor. Now I see that Virgin has taken a very very...yonic style to it's spaceport architecture.

I think that the 'phallic' aspect of rocketry has more to do with physics than anyone's actual obsession with penises. Personally, I think when you read phalli into it, I think that says more about you than rocketry.

I think that the same can be said about this hanger... I didn't see what you saw until you mentioned it... Now I can't stop seeing it through. Thank you very much.

All rockets have to look like phallic because of physics. But you could argue that their phallic nature helps shape our attitudes about them.

You can, but anyone with an ounce of engineer or scientist in them ought to just say "Occam's Razor" and consider the case closed. Are rockets shaped the way they are because of physics, or are they shaped the way they are because of physics and because men are obsessed with big penises? Occam's Razor.

Not so fast. One could also contend that phalluses are shaped that way because of evolutionary biology responding to underlying physics and geometry. Einstein's formulation of Occam's Razor was, "simple as possible, but no simpler." You haven't established your either-or choice as the only possibilities. (In other words, there is an underlying causation to both!)

It doesn't look quite so bad in the second picture where it blends into the background.

Architecturally I think this style is called "How to spend as much money as possible on something that is still just a big shed in the desert".

Seriously though, was there any real need to build a "spaceport"? Wouldn't White Knight/Spaceship 2.0 equally capable of operating out of any decent-sized airport, if you make sure you arrange priority landing for the spaceship? (Does Spaceship Two land on a runway?)

Ups the cachet considerably, no? If you're paying that kind of money for a flight, isn't it more fitting to fly out of a Spaceport then Albuquerque International Airport?

Plus, given time, we may see a vicious hive of scum and villainy grow in the surrounding area.

Indeed, I was just wondering whether there was any practical reason for it. But since "sounds cool" is a more-than-sufficient justification for any Virgin activity at this stage, and since "building a spaceport" was really just "buying an old airport in the middle of the desert and putting up a new sign" I guess I'm not too surprised.

Plus, given time, we may see a vicious hive of scum and villainy grow in the surrounding area.

Albuquerque?

It's much closer to Roswell...

He meant Mos Eisley.

I got the Star Wars reference.

I used to live in Albuquerue and I was implying that Roswell was more like Mos Eisley than Albuquerque. Though that's just a personal opinion.

Makes sense. Albuquerque's west side is full of a bunch of whiney Luke types "I wish we were cool like the main city" :)

If you have to explain it...

Don't you mean a wretched hive of scum and villainy?

One of the very important reasons why it got built in New Mexico is that the White Sands test range has restricted airspace to infinity, which is unique out side of like the pentagon. As a result the air/space space right next to it is nicely uncluttered so they don't have to worry about space debris nearly as much.

That makes a lot of sense. But "infinity"? I'd like to see them enforce that beyond a few light-minutes...

I'm sure they're sending cease and desist notices to a number of galaxies all of the time. They're just waiting for the response before escalating.

At least White Sands is outside the tropics, so we don't need to worry about the sun. Not so sure about the moon.

This way they don't need to work around the schedule of a busy major airport, which I'm guessing would probably be unwilling to accommodate them. Pleasure flights and pilot lessons are usually out of small regional airports for similar reasons.

The passengers don't exactly just turn up, check their bags, and fly. They need to go through a complex medical check-up to ensure that they are fit for spaceflight. If I recall, the tickets include a two-week stay at the spaceport (to ensure everyone is healthy and ready for the process), and given the cost of tickets, it probably needs to be a nice place to stay.

You've taught me a new adjective. Thank you.

I wonder if they'll manage to go to the moon within 20 years.

from the looks of it http://www.virgingalactic.com/assets/img/overview/spaceport/... you'll actually need a regular plane (or private jet for that matter) to get there in the first place.

Considering the fact that the asking price is $200,000 per person. Shouldn't be a problem for most of its customers.

Based on its target market, I'd say this certainly shouldn't be a problem.

I'd love to hear Richard Branson at next year's startup school, but I so do not want to see comments with "vote up if you..."

It goes above the Kármán line (100km/62 miles), which is the international standard for the boundary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

What's so special about 73-76 miles? What happens there? How is it a better definition than the Karman line?

If you look at the experiments that define the 73/76 mile point, it's where atmosphere truly ends among other scientific measurements.

Space or not, if I had the money, I'd be first in line to go 70 miles in to the sky on a plane built by Burt Rutan. Like...come on!

Does it matter though if your going to 60 or 100 miles, the experience would probably be similar?

Or just rich people who want to go to space.

I'd want to go to space even if I could never tell anyone about it. (Though if I did ever go to space, my friends would probably get tired of me talking about it.) I imagine lots of people with $200K to burn feel exactly the same way.

OK, why? I can't imagine it being very much more exciting that flying in a plane. Perhaps you'll get a nice view of the earth, but what else?

edit: Yes, you could just downmod me, or you could explain why you're excited about being able to go into 'space'

If you're not excited by the idea of going into space then nothing I can say can possibly communicate the excitement that the idea holds for me. Overanalyze everything and nothing is exciting... I'd also like to have sex with [insert this week's celebrity crush here] even though it's "just sticking one piece of meat inside another piece of meat".

I will, however, say that every one of our ancestors for the past four billion years has been confined to a thin layer on the surface of a smallish and otherwise-undistinguished rock in a universe whose scale is... very big. To be one of the first thousand or so Earth-origin organisms to get away from the rock, even if it's just to float for a half an hour in the dark vacuum just outside, sounds pretty darn exciting to me.

It ain't first-man-on-Mars stuff, but as far as expensive rich-person holidays go it's better than a week in Vegas.

Fair enough. I'd much rather go to vegas :/

The rocket burn to get you up that high isn't something you get in a plane.

Who cares what it's about so long as it funds development of rocketplane technology?