Spaceport America in NM to seek more state money

Virgin Galactic has again pushed back its estimated start date for launching commercial flights from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. And spaceport officials say they’ll need to ask the Legislature for more money to make up for lost user fees from the company.

New Mexico Spaceport Authority Chairman Rick Holdridge told the Las Cruces Sun-News (http://bit.ly/1dOSwJ5 ) following a board meeting Tuesday that the expected start of tourism space flights has been pushed back from February to August 2014, a delay he says is expensive for the state.

Spaceport officials say they’ll have to ask the Legislature in January for $7 million to finish paving a road between the Spaceport and Las Cruces because other expenses have eaten into its budget.

Virgin Galactic, which is the anchor tenant, began paying its $1 million a year rent on the facility in January.