Champagne high: Welcome to the world's first spaceport! Sir Richard Branson opens $209m terminal where tourists will blast into orbit

British billionaire Richard Branson christened the world's first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport in New Mexico on Monday. He hopes his Virgin Galactic can begin commercial space tourism from the spaceport by the end of 2012.

It is the luxury terminal where wealthy tourists will blast into orbit for $200,000 per return trip.

And Virigin's new space terminal in the New Mexico desert looked suitably futuristic as it was unveieled yesterday.

The building will house Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, mission control and a preparation area for travellers when flights begin sometime after the end of 2012.

With his usual flair, British billionaire Richard Branson rappelled from a balcony, shook up a big bottle of champagne and took a swig while christening the building.

Branson's Virgin Galactic will stage its commercial space tourism venture from Spaceport America in a remote patch of desert in southern New Mexico.

Branson was joined by Governor Susana Martinez, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and scores of would-be space travellers at the terminal-hangar for the dedication.

It had been nearly a year since Branson was in New Mexico to celebrate the completion of the runway.

'The building is absolutely magnificent,' he said. 'It is literally out of this world, and that's what we were aiming at creating.'

With the spaceport and mothership completed, the company is now finalizing its rocket tests.

'We're ticking the final boxes on the way to space,' Branson said.

He hopes enough powered test flights of Virgin Galactic's sleek spacecraft can be done by the end of 2012 to start commercial suborbital flights from the spaceport soon after.

More than 450 people have purchased tickets to fly with Virgin Galactic. About 150 of them attended the ceremony.

Before getting to enter the hangar, the crowd was treated to a flyover by WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that one day will help take space tourists on suborbital flights.

The $209million taxpayer-financed spaceport will be a launch station for people and payloads on the rocket ships being developed for Virgin Galactic.

With custom metal panelling and massive panes of glass, the state-of-the-art terminal rises from the desert floor to face the nearly 2-mile(3.2-kilometer) concrete runway.

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