Commercial Space Pioneers Gather to Chart Future of Space Travel
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Leaders in the burgeoning private space industry are gathering in the New Mexico desert this week for the seventh annual International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight.
Officials from commercial space firms including SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, Bigelow Aerospace, XCOR and others will join representatives from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to discuss the growing field of for-profit spaceflight. The meeting will run Oct. 19 – 20 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, N.M.
The conference will wrap up with a trip to the world's first commercial spaceport, Spaceport America, which is being built near Truth or Consequences, N.M.
Mojave, Calif.-based firm Virgin Galactic, a frontrunner in the race to launch the first tourists aboard commercial spaceships, is the anchor tenant at Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle aims to launch customers from the spaceport in the next few years. [Photos: Spaceport America Blooms in New Mexico Desert]
The spaceport's modern hangar terminal was dedicated in a ceremony on Monday (Oct. 17).
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Clara Moskowitz is a science and space writer who joined the Space.com team in 2008 and served as Assistant Managing Editor from 2011 to 2013. Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She covers everything from astronomy to human spaceflight and once aced a NASTAR suborbital spaceflight training program for space missions. Clara is currently Associate Editor of Scientific American. To see her latest project is, follow Clara on Twitter.
