The roughly 3-kilometer-long runway that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo will use when it starts flying paying passengers to suborbital space was officially named the “Governor Bill Richardson Spaceway” during an Oct. 22 dedication ceremony at New Mexico’s Spaceport America.

Richardson and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson attended the event, which featured a flyover and landing by Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo in a captive carry with SpaceShipTwo.