New Mexico’s Spaceport America – the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world – has launched a new experience tour and exhibition for its visitors as it looks to offset operational costs for the US$219m (€195m, £139m) facility.

A new US$7m (€6.2m, £4.4m) visitor centre, which sits in the hot-springs district of the city of Truth or Consequences, is located inside a historic 1930s adobe building. The visitor centre offers educational and interactive space experiences, with the option of purchasing a ticket for the official tour of the URS/Foster + Partners-designed Spaceport for the full experience.

The four-hour trip, which had been running as a “hard hat” tour for several years, has now been modified to provide a fully-fledged experience. Visitors board multi-media shuttles to make the 25 mile (40km) journey out to the remote location, where video presentations en-route will educate them about the history and evolution of the regional Spanish and Native American pioneers all the way up to the space pioneers currently shooting for the stars in astro-travel.

After arriving at the Spaceport, visitors enter the brand new Gateway Gallery by Orlando-based experience design firm IDEAS, where they can see life-size replicas of offerings from Virgin Galactic, get a view of the 45,000sq ft (4,180sq m) terminal hangar and the chance to try out a G-Shock simulator. Following this, visitors are taken to the Spaceport Operations Center (SOC) and can interact with Spaceport’s staff and look around the state-of-the-art fire station before being driven down the 12,000ft-long (3,657m) main runway.

"We wanted Spaceport America to be a place where the public can have a hands-on, authentic and fun experience inside a real commercial space launch facility – an experience you can't get anywhere else," said CEO Christine Anderson. "To that end, we have created the Spaceport America Experience so that our guests will learn more about space travel, about Spaceport America, and about New Mexico's role in enabling commercial space."

The new visitor centre and accompanying experience have been developed as a way to offset running costs for the Spaceport, where flights are currently grounded after a Virgin Galactic test flight broke apart during a rocket-powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert last year, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.

Prior to the accident, flights had been scheduled for early 2015, but that has now been altered to “when we’re ready”, according to Spaceport representatives.

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