NM - Virgin spaceship to pass new milestone

The world's first private passenger spaceship will pass another milestone toward its commercial lift-off Friday, at a remote spaceport in the New Mexico desert. Flamboyant British multi-millionaire Richard Branson will commemorate the completion of the main runway at Spaceport America, near the town of Las Cruces where the Virgin Galactic project is based. SpaceShipTwo, which could carry paying customers into suborbital space by early 2012, had its maiden flight in the California desert in March. On Friday, the aircraft -- re-Christened the VSS Enterprise -- will stage a flypass high above the new two-mile (3.2-kilometer) long, 200-foot (60-meter) wide runway in tandem with its mothership, known as WhiteKightTwo or Eve. "The completion of the runway at Spaceport America (is) a major milestone in the construction of the world?s first purpose-built commercial spaceport," it said in a statement. Virgin Galactic, which aims to become the world's first company to promote space tourism, has already collected 45 million dollars in deposits from more than 340 people who have reserved seats aboard the six-person craft...more