Once it's built, the X-Prize Cup will move from the Las Cruces Airport to the New Mexico Spaceport, north of Las Cruces, off Interstate 25.

New Mexico's secretary of economic development said the state is building the Spaceport in anticipation of a whole new travel industry that will reach into Earth's orbit or suborbit.

This site will serve as an airport for space.

"It's a very visionary, kind of Star Trek kind of process we're gonna go through. Some people talk about the future of this industry is point-to-point transportation-- that you'll go from New Mexico to Paris in 40 minutes, you'll go from New Mexico to Moscow in 50 minutes. That's where some people think the future is going," said Rick Homans, New Mexico economic development secretary.

Homans said he expects construction of the New Mexico Spaceport to begin within the next two years.