Spaceport America, New Mexico, United States

In April 2008, the voters of Sierra County approved the plan, releasing over US$40 million in funding for the spaceport. Voters in a third county, Otero, voted in the November 2008 general election to reject the spaceport tax. Following this, great headway in its completion began to be made.
In December 2008, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority received its launch license for vertical and horizontal launch in from the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Shortly thereafter, Virgin Galactic signed a 20-year (240-month) lease, as the anchor tenant, for the hangar facilities of the spaceport. Virgin Galactic agreed to pay US$1 million per year for the first five years, as well as payments on a tiered scale, based on the number of launches the company makes.
Gerald Martin Construction Management from Albuquerque was chosen in December 2008 to oversee construction of the spaceport. As of April 2009, the first of 13 bid packages for the spaceport was expected to be publicly released later that month and all 13 bid packages were scheduled to be released by June 2009. "The goal is to have (construction) completed in 17 months, by December 2010."
The ground-breaking ceremony marking the beginning of construction for Spaceport America's permanent facilities was held on June 19, 2009. On 22 October 2009, the spaceport announced that paid tours of the facilities would begin in December 2009.