First Spaceport Is A Giant Leap For Branson

British billionaire Richard Branson has opened the world's first commercial spaceport.

With usual flair, the businessman inaugurated the building in the New Mexico desert by breaking a champagne bottle against a hangar - while abseiling down the side of it.

The site has been called Spaceport America and will serve as the new home for his company, Virgin Galactic.

The company said it is expected to house up to two WhiteKnightTwos and five SpaceShipTwos , in addition to all of Virgin's astronaut preparation facilities and mission control.

About 150 people already booked on to the first flights attended the event. Also among the guests was US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second human on the moon.

Last month Mr Branson said he hoped to launch a vessel into space within the next 12 months, which he said would kick off an era of commercial space travel.

"The mother ship is finished... The rocket tests are going extremely well, and so I think that we're now on track for a launch within 12 months of today," he said.

"About an hour between Los Angeles and London is not completely out of the question," Mr Branson said, while adding it would probably take many years before the company could offer such a service.

In the meantime, Virgin has sold around 430 tickets for space travel, at £127,000 (\$200,000) each.

A number of private companies are rushing to fill the gap left by Nasa, which ended its 30-year Shuttle programme in July with the completion of the final Atlantis mission to the International Space Station.