The world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport rises from the Jornada del Muerto desert basin about 45 miles south of T or C — close enough for a day trip, though you will need to book a guided tour to get inside the facility. Virgin Galactic operates out of the futuristic terminal building designed by Norman Foster, which is partially buried in the desert floor and topped with a grass-covered mound.
Tours cover the terminal building, the two-mile runway, and the surrounding high desert landscape. The location was chosen partly for its vast restricted airspace over White Sands Missile Range and partly because the Jornada del Muerto averages over 340 sunny days per year — important for launch windows. Whether commercial space tourism ever fulfils its original promise, the building itself is striking, and the drive out through open desert country is memorable.
story: "The name Jornada del Muerto — Journey of the Dead Man — comes from the brutal 90-mile waterless stretch of desert that Spanish colonists had to cross here in the 17th century. The first atomic bomb was also detonated nearby at Trinity Site in 1945, making this patch of desert unusually significant in the history of human audacity."