British company Starchaser Industries plans to sink $100 million dollars and a decade of development into "Rocket City," a collection of facilities to support the anticipated civilian commercial space travel boom coming to New Mexico. Rocket City, on 120 acres along I-10 west of Las Cruces, would include a space theme park, along with serious rocket manufacturing and space farer training facilities.

The Southwest Regional Spaceport will be about 50 miles due north of Rocket City, at Upham, NM. Starchaser claims to be sensitive to the "importance of maintaining the integrity of the low population density near the Spaceport" (crash landings can be a bitch). And, besides, there's way more tourist traffic along the interstate.

The space-age theme park would include rocket rides and other astronaut entertainments; the area would also offer tours of spaceship manufacturing facilities. The company already operates a space-themed attraction which opened earlier this year in Manchester, UK.

The Spaceport is expected to be operational by 2009 or 2010, with the Rocket City theme park opening mid-decade after that... [07/11/2006]