A New Space Race Is Underway In The Texas & New Mexico Desert

The original "Space Race" was between the United States Of America and Russia. Today, it's kind if a Texas/New Mexico thing.

In 1957, Russia got a satellite into orbit and soon after, (in 1958), we launched one too. The "Space Race" was on and, as both the USA and the USSR strove to win it, things happened fast.

In '59, the Russians got a probe onto the moon and by '61 had put a man into orbit. We followed suit with a chimp in '61.

Our own, human, astronaut was in space a month after the Russian and POTUS Kennedy swore we'd land on the moon before the '60's ended.

We followed through and in July of '69, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.

Now it seems there is a new Space Race on and this time around it involves getting everyday people into space on an everyday basis.

Commercial space travel is the new goal and it's becoming a reality less than 2 hours, north and east, of El Paso.

Blue Origin has been launching rockets and people from just outside Van Horn, 130 miles or so east of El Paso. Among others, a famous, fictional space traveler finally got to really visit the "final frontier".

It's a little pricey but, if you want to check out space too, you can book your flight here.

To the north, about 45 miles from Las Cruces, Spaceport America set up shop in 2006.

They were deemed ready for operations in 2019 and sent the first manned mission off in 2021.

Following a rough start, Virgin Galactic has since launched over 300 rockets from the New Mexico desert.

The initial Space Race involved governments, national pride and military strategies.

This time around, it's about joyrides.