The Final Frontier: Arizona Makes Strides In Commercial Space Travel

Growing up, I always wanted to be an astronaut. Of course, at the ripe age of eight years old, I didn't know that they were essentially just glorified scientists and not the crew of the USS Enterprise.

What drew me to the profession was space travel, a world entirely outside of our grasp that only a select few could ever reach.

The game has changed now, and it all starts in Arizona.

Virgin Galactic

Space tourism is a growing fad across the world these days. With private space agencies flooding the markets, commercial spaceflight is less of a fantasy and more of a genuine reality.

Virgin Galactic is one company trying to take advantage of the trend. They have been testing their spaceplanes out across the west coast for a few years, and are now ready to go public with their findings.

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Arizona, We Are Go For Launch

Mesa, Arizona is Virgin Galactic's landing place. The company has just broken ground on a new manufacturing facility, meant to build and test their commercially available vehicles.

The facility is state-of-the-art, harboring two hangars and digital twin tech that will allow for more safety research to take place before launch. The facility plans to be complete by Quarter 1 of 2025, and spaceflights are expected to begin in 2026.

The spacecraft will have the capacity for six passengers to traverse into the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere, giving them the spaceflight experience so many have dreamed of. This is still a relatively expensive endeavor, but as this industry grows this will become more accessible to anyone hoping to fulfil their astronaut dreams.

[Manufacturing Dive]