Unofficially, the voters of Dona Ana county passed a tax measure that will help fund the construction of a private space port near Upham, NM. The vote totals are not official because not all the provisional ballots have been counted. However there are only 108 provisional ballots, and the measure is leading by more than 250 votes.

There has been a lot of press about this 'Spaceport America' thing recently. Just yesterday there was an article on MSNBC about the plan. A great quote from the article Carol Garcia, 52, of Las Cruces, said: “It’s just a rich man’s dream that he needs us to help pay for. If it’s your dream, build it yourself.” While I am glad that the plan is moving forward, these folks in a very poor county of one of America's poorest states shouldn't have to pay for it.

Here is another article about 'Spaceport America', the spaceport slated for development in New Mexico. This article precedes the signing of the letter of agreement by Richard Branson. This article speaks almost exclusively to the unwillingness of the local New Mexican county, Dona Ana, to sign into law a tax increase for the project. I'm starting to see a particularly interesting public relations campaign by Virgin Galactic.

Richard Branson has signed an agreement to use the, as yet undeveloped, Spaceport America in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic will pay $27.5 million over 20 years to use the spaceport as the base of it's operations for space tourism. The facility is expected to be completed in 2009 at a cost of around $198 million. The referendum signed by Branson is not a legally binding contract - more than likely because as yet, the people of certain New Mexico counties have not agreed to raise their own taxes in order to pay for the spaceport.

Richard Branson is offering a $25 million dollar prize to the inventor who can create a machine to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. One stipulation is that the method must be cost effective. More information can be found at Virgin Earth.

The Musion Eyeliner from Musion Systems is a 3D holographic display capable of showing full sized images of people or even cars. The Musion Eyeliner is being used by Toyota to promote their new concept car. An exhibit is live at the Bluewater Shopping center in Kent, UK until about February 20th.

The display creates a 5m x 3m (16.5 ft x 9.8 ft) image using a single projector. Images are similarly captured using one camera. Setting up the Musion Eyeliner requires an additional 4m (13 ft) of depth. Sets can be as big as 20m x 100m. Musion claims that their displays can be used to play electronic games...

It seems as though crazy tourism adventures may really have a future, and offer a possible hope for driving near earth space travel in the near future. It's amazing what rich people will spend their money on. I mean, I was excited about buying n electric baseboard heater yesterday (because I refuse to [sic, cannot] pay for heating oil anymore).

Richard Branson steps into to the space travel fray

This article is a press release from the unveiling of the interior of Virgin Galactic's space ship. The space ship is designed for suborbital flights for 6 passengers.

Good Luck! Aceize will be following your exploits Sir Branson.