An article in an El Paso alternative newspaper, Newspaper Tree, describes a boom taking place in Las Cruces, NM. What’s causing the boom? It turns out that retirees are flocking to the city as a low-cost alternative to locales in Arizona and Florida, although writer Jeff Berg had this to say:

Las Cruces ‘boom’ can only be equated with the retirees, as it has not much else to offer, unless the planned spaceport actually takes off … but one should consider what kind of growth that will offer.

Hmmm… what kind of growth would a spaceport offer? And why would it be viewed negatively, as the tone of the passage suggests? Perhaps the author is confusing Spaceport America with Mos Eisley.

The BBC reports that Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn is making an “informal” visit to RAF Lossiemouth, a Scottish air base that is being considered as a potential European spaceport for the space tourism company. Virgin Galactic has previously stated that they have considered northern Scotland as one of the few locations in Europe, from an airspace perspective, where such flights could operate; Virgin is also reportedly interested in Kiruna, Sweden, home to a sounding rocket launch facility. It’s not clear how a commercial space tourism operation could be integrated into an operational military air base; the web site for RAF Lossiemouth describes the base as “the largest and busiest fast-jet base in the Royal Air Force”.