Billionaire Sir Richard Branson is moving Virgin Galactic's winged passenger rocket and more than 100 employees from California to a remote commercial launch and landing facility in southern New Mexico, bringing his space tourism dream a step closer to reality.
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Sir Richard said on Friday at a news conference that Virgin Galactic's development and testing program has advanced enough to make the move to the custom-tailored hangar and runway at the taxpayer-financed Spaceport America facility near the town of Truth or Consequences.
An interior cabin for the company's space rocket is being tested, and pilots and engineers are among the employees relocating from California to New Mexico.
The manufacturing of the space vehicles by a sister enterprise, The Spaceship Company, will remain based in the community of Mojave, California.
Taxpayers invested over $US200 million ($A286 million) in Spaceport America after Sir Richard and then-Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.
Virgin Galactic's spaceship development has taken far longer than expected and had a major setback when the company's first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.
Sir Richard thanked New Mexico politicians and residents for their patience over the past decade. He said he believes space tourism - once aloft - is likely to bring about profound change.
"Our future success as a species rests on the planetary perspective," Branson said.
"The perspective that we know comes sharply into focus when that planet is viewed form the black sky of space."
Sir Richard described a vision of hotels in space and a network of spaceports allowing supersonic, transcontinental travel anywhere on earth within a few hours. He indicated, however, that building financial viability comes first.
"We need the financial impetus to be able to do all that," he said.
"If the space program is successful as I think, then the sky is the limit."
In February, a new version of Virgin Galactic's winged craft SpaceShipTwo soared at three times the speed of sound to an altitude of nearly 99 kilometres in a test flight over Southern California.
The company's current spaceship doesn't launch from the ground. It is carried under a special plane to an altitude of about 15,240 metres before detaching and igniting its rocket engine.
Sir Richard previously has said he would like to make his first suborbital flight this year as one of the venture's first passengers on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20.
But he made no mention of timelines on Friday.
Hundreds of potential customers have committed as much as $US250,000 ($A356,992) up front for rides in Virgin's six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet.
Australian Associated Press
