Posted on: July 2, 2024, 04:43h.
Last updated on: July 2, 2024, 04:49h.
An airport for recreational space travel in Las Vegas just cleared the second hurdle on its voyage toward reality. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently approved plans for a private airport on 240 acres of desert land that its owners hope to transform into the Las Vegas Spaceport, according to a press release from the company.
Las Vegas Executive Airport is where private planes will one day bring civilian astronauts to a complex, called the Las Vegas Space Center, that will feature the spaceport plus a ground school for flight acclimation training, and a 200-room hotel with a restaurant and 20,000 square-foot casino.
According to the FAA’s approval, the proposed jet takeoffs won’t require clearance from air traffic control because they won’t take place in FAA-controlled airspace.
“We are energized by the support we’ve received and are eager to continue this journey,” Spaceport CEO Robert Lauer said in a press release. “This is a major step toward creating a space economy that will lead to thousands of high-paying jobs in our community, our county, and our state.”
In May, the Clark County Commission unanimously approved construction permits for the Las Vegas Spaceport to build a $30 million runway.
About $10 million in investor pledges Lauer received were contingent on both approvals, according to the press release.
Space Frontier Far from Final
However, the spaceport still needs to raise the rest of its expected $310 million cost.
Lauer’s company would also need to partner with one of the 37 companies currently seeking FAA approval to build space planes, as well as a casino company to run its gaming and a hotel company to run its hotel.
In other words, we are still more than a decade from the spaceport’s first countdown.
“We have a 10-year plan to build a space tourism industry here,” Lauer previously told Casino.org.
Why Vegas?
The primary reason to build a spaceport in Las Vegas, Lauer said, is the town’s 40 million visitors per year.
“They’re all only a 15-minute helicopter ride away,” Lauer told casino.org. “And how many folks do we have flying to Las Vegas and spending $100,000 on a hand of poker? Casinos in Las Vegas could offer our rides as a bonus to their highest-paying customers.”
Currently, 14 similar spaceports are licensed by the FAA, though only two are privately owned, and you already guessed by whom. (One guy owns SpaceX, the other a little company called Amazon.)
However, instead of the $200,000-$300,000 per average it costs to ride with Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Lauer said that developing tech will bring costs down to as little as $30,000-50,000 per seat by the time his dream becomes reality.
