Wow – The Spaceport In New Mexico Is 20 Years Old

Spaceport America, located north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is almost old enough to drink. I hope they'll celebrate with free rides, space travel is a little out of my budget.

The distance from El Paso to outer space is only about 100 miles north or 150 if you go east. That's where the 2 commercial, US space ports are located anyway. El Paso sits between the two big dogs in the new "space race", damn near the same distance from each.

Which is nice because NASA is in Houston which is super far away and super humid. I'm a "dry heat" kinda astronaut.

READ MORE: Texas Vs. New Mexico For Space Travel

When it comes to space travel, NASA was the only game in town and they only carried about military or governmental operations like spying and claiming other worlds for the USA.

Anybody Can Go To Space

Thanks to Spaceport America and their counterpart, Blue Origin, the little, (albeit, uber - rich), guy can visit the final frontier at will. Spaceport America had a little head start on Blue Origin and they just hit the big 2 - oh. Looks like they're planning some upgrades too ...

2 decades is how long Spaceport America has been up and running ... the first launch from there was in 2006 ... but its origins stretch back to 1992. That's when the Southwest Space Task Force was formed to look into whether or not a "Spaceport" could really happen.

Visiting Spaceport America

If you want to go to Spaceport America but don't have "go to space" money, that's ok - tours, special events and photo shoots can be arranged. Call 575-267-8888 or visit their  website to set something up. Special "fly in" events can be arranged too and any that have already been scheduled will be posted at spaceportamericatour.com.

Space Flight Spoiler

Space "flight" doesn't mean you're going to the moon, another planet or trying to find ET's home. Space is defined by the US Air Force as "50 miles from the surface of the Earth". All the cool stuff is much farther away so, I'd say, save your money for a trip to Cancun or one of the Metallica "no repeat" events at The Sphere in October.