Spaceport America Visitor Center

What a great tour Curtis put together for us!! Happened to meet the Spaceport America Director on our tour. Quite an honor. So much information!Don't forget to shop for T-shirts and gifts at https://www.spaceportamerica.com/shop/

We stopped into the Spaceport Visitor Center to check it out. It's small and doesn't have a lot but it has some cool stuff to play with especially if you have kids. They no longer have any trips to the Spaceport so that's a bummer but hopefully soon. I would give it more stores if there was a There is a nice visitors' center in the front with some friendly people to assist. They gave us a few great ideas like the Passion Pie Cafe which I'll go into in a separate review. For good ideas during your visit to T or C, give this place a try.

New Mexico, of all places, is pregnant with a wonderful, aspirational future . . . about which nobody seems to know. One locus for that, Spaceport America, is a 45 minute van ride from Truth or Consequences. I came to T or C for the baths, which are wonderful, and was surprised to find that the Spaceport's visitors' center was here. Tours leave from here a number of days per week and last a little over 4 hours. They are not cheap: nearly $50. But if you are sad and surprised to be living in a country that so depends on yet so disparages science, and need to have your faith restored by encountering an outpost of scientific literacy and aspiration, fork over the $50 and go. You'll feel better.On the way out to the Spaceport your guide will show a few short videos on the van, explaining the history of the area. You will see the Virgin Galactic terminal, a LEED certified Gold building designed by Norman Foster. It's beautiful, with various educational displays and a G-Shock device which you can try, which simulates 1 to 1.5 Gs. The building is also functional: it's a hangar for the planes, a full-scale model of which you can see there. You can also visit the innovative building housing the offices and fire and rescue equipment. The firefighting crews have assisted neighbors when fires have broken out nearby - a huge help in this drought-parched landscape.The guide is an Air Force vet who used to work for Cisco Systems and looks like a young Val Kilmer. He will invite you to imagine the purposes to which humanity could put commercial space travel, and answer your questions. Back at the visitors' center you can, of course, buy caps and shirts and such with the Spaceport logo. You will want to.The one thing I would suggest be added to the tour: ways in which we can support this work, whether by writing online reviews, writing to governmental bodies on which the work depends in part for funds, licensing, etc., or whatnot. This ought to be in the top five places to visit in New Mexico. T or C has ample lodging facilities and good restaurants to support many more visitors than it currently has.

We went on the guided tour to the Spaceport, leaving from the visitors' center in the old-town section of Truth or Consequences. It's worth spending some time in the visitors center with the displays. They provide a lot of helpful information.Curtis was our guide and driver throughout and he couldn't have been more helpful and informed. After leaving the visitors center, he made a preliminary stop at the Elephant Butte reservoir and then on to the main attraction. The drive itself is very interesting and I felt very insignificant in the vast stretches of land in every direction. The first stop was in the administration building, where Curtis gave us an overview of the facility and its history and its aspirations. He was able to answer every question our group had. Here we also got to visit the fire-safety facility and got an up-close, hands-on experience with the state-of-the-art fire engines and emergency vehicles and were able to meet the firefighters, who couldn't have been nicer to us.On to the hangar, where we saw the G-shock simulator, which was also available for us to experience first-hand Force 2 and Force 3. Although we couldn't enter the hangar itself, we were able to view it from large floor-to-ceiling windows and see from above the large Virgin Galactic plane that launches the smaller rocket that carries passengers.Next stop was to see one of the rockets, located outdoors a few hundred feet from the hangar.Last stop was at the impressive sculpture at the entrance for a final photo-op. Curtis is very accommodating in taking group pictures!The tour takes about 4 hours from leaving the visitors center and the return back. Make sure you go prepared with water, sunscreen, and a hat. And the funky, welcoming little town of T or C is well worth a visit, especially for the natural hot springs and the friendly shops and restaurants.