I had planned on visiting the Masten Aerospace hanger as well, but as we ran into Dave at XCOR I got business out of the way and did not really have an excuse to sandwich that much desired visit into our schedule. Time had slipped by far too rapidly and Rand was due at the Mariah Hotel to get his Press credentials.

Since I was also doing articles and had not yet had any guarantee of getting into the event as I was still just wait listed, I chanced showing up at the press desk, egged on by some Press friends. It did not work and in fact a woman named Jackie looked like she was about to turf me out of the building on my ear and thereafter seemed to glare at me every time she saw me.

My main chance at getting in was more official and as it turned out, it was successful. After Rand left on the press bus I tried the VIP desk. They were much more helpful and after showing a key email and talking with a few people in Virgin Galactic I was presented with one of the last of the stainless steel VIP badges and told to hurry on board the last bus.

The VIP registration desk.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The busses were the only way onto the field and even they were held up waiting for obeisance to red tape. All the buses, whether from LA or the hotel, were held in a queue and all were released to the taxiway at once.

The party site was at the end of the runway, hard up against the exhaust deflector and far from the hanger area. There were large signs which I correctly took to be part of the night time light show and a grouping of tents, one very large clear plastic covered structure and

The main tent.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

two smaller inflated balloon structures. It was all very 21st Century.

Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

Inside of the tents was the sort of environment you would expect from a party held by Richard Branson for a few hundred friends. The first tent held the coat and bag check and was the point at which we were given our very nice Puma 'VirginGalactic' jackets and ski caps.

OCST Director George Nield deep in a conversation inside the first balloon tent.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The interiors of the two balloon tents were quite nice looking

Interior of second balloon tent.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The second balloon tent exits at the jet exhaust deflector.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

Outside the second tent I found a sculptress still at work carving a space-suited figure out of a block of ice. As it turned out one of the sponsors was Absolut and carved ice played a big part in the night's festivities. I do suspect at the planning stage they did not think it would be so cold that there would be no melting to worry about.

It was in no danger of melting.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

There was another bar inside the main tent and then the main auditorium area. People were collecting there as the speeches were due to start soon. There were little knots of conversation as people made contacts of opportunity or met with old friends.

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The fellow in orange is Dick Rutan, the man who along with Jeanna Yeager flew the first non-stop flight around the world.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The global media were out in force. Note Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize Foundation in the lower right. He is the man responsible for this explosion in commercial manned space flight.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

Brett Silcox from NSS was busy chatting with targets of opportunity..
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

I walked around the tent to get a feel for the territory.

This is the tarmac area where I expected we would see SpaceShipTwo after dark.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The media were everywhere and interviewing everyone.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

There was a full scale replica of SpaceShipOne, the craft whose first flight I live blogged from here some five years ago.

The X-Prize Foundation arranged for the creation of replicas of SpaceShipOne.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The main stage was ready for occupation and speechifying.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

Tomorrow I will cover the speeches.

This is the third in a series of articles. The previous one is here

A few of my photos also appear in Rand Simberg's Popular Mechanics article.