Construction delay at Spaceport America

The Air Rescue Fire Facility (ARFF) at Spaceport America, seen earlier this month. (credit: Spaceport America)

Spaceport America officials have stopped work on one of the facility’s buildings until as late as next spring in order to reevaulate the design of its interior, the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday. The Air Rescue Fire Facility (ARFF), a building that will be the spaceport’s fire station as well as host the spaceport’s administrative offices, was 70-percent complete last week when officials ordered work on it halted. Rick Homans, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, said the work stoppage was designed to allow them reevaulate the interior of the dome-shaped ARFF. “We want to make sure the interior design and functionality works for us and that it is also in sync with the overall look and design of the other components of Spaceport America,” Homans told the Journal. He said that reevaulation would be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2011, at which point work on the building would resume. Any additional costs incurred by the redesign would be “minimal”, he said.

Work on the rest of the spaceport, including its signature terminal building, continues. The runway itself is complete, and officials with the state and its anchor tenant, Virgin America, formally dedicated it last month. It’s unclear if the delay on the ARFF would also delay the overall completion of the spaceport, planned for the middle of 2011.