New Mexico's long-promised commercial spaceport has landed its first customer.
Connecticut-based UP Aerospace Inc. plans a series of suborbital space flights from the facility beginning March 27.

The company's 15- and 21-foot rockets will carry experimental and commercial payloads into space at a fraction of the cost of launches at government facilities. New Mexico's commercial spaceport will be the only one of its kind.

The state has agreed to improve the site, at a cost of about $100,000, with structures and a concrete slab to accommodate assembly and launch of UP Aerospace's rockets. The state will also spend several hundred thousand dollars to improve the road leading east from Interstate 25 to the spaceport in southern Sierra County.

UP Aerospace plans three or four launches next year, 12 in 2007 and up to 30 in 2008. The state will charge the company a $1,000 launch fee. UP Aerospace also will provide flight data the state can use to support its Federal Aviation Administration application to license the spaceport.

After years of planning, the dream of a commercial spaceport is inching toward reality. March 27 will be a day the state could begin solidifying its role in commercial space flight.