Las Vegas developer touts spaceport plan
A Las Vegas developer is publicizing his plan to build a spaceport for rockets and spaceplanes on his 240 acre lot, with launches taking place within five to seven years.
He is also building a hotel/casino at this location, and I suspect the spaceport proposal’s purpose has more to do with publicizing that casino than actually launching rockets. He claims he will have a spaceport permit in two years, but for him to get such a thing for this land-based site is questionable.
The developer is also proposing to include a space-focused engineering school at the site, as well as fly zero-gravity planes from there, both of which are far more feasible.
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A Las Vegas developer is publicizing his plan to build a spaceport for rockets and spaceplanes on his 240 acre lot, with launches taking place within five to seven years.
He is also building a hotel/casino at this location, and I suspect the spaceport proposal’s purpose has more to do with publicizing that casino than actually launching rockets. He claims he will have a spaceport permit in two years, but for him to get such a thing for this land-based site is questionable.
The developer is also proposing to include a space-focused engineering school at the site, as well as fly zero-gravity planes from there, both of which are far more feasible.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Just an impression, but that’s a lot of different activities for a single 240-acre parcel.
Rob Lauer seems to have a business plan, but I don’t know where he thinks he will get a spacecraft that will take two crew and six passengers to a space hotel. I have not heard of any such spacecraft under development.
It would certainly be nice if there were enough business for 15 such flights a month, and at the prices he suggests, there probably would be that much business. I wish him luck in finding his spacecraft and his space hotel. There are several inland spaceports licensed around the country, so I am more optimistic than Robert about Lauer getting that license, but I am not optimistic that he will get the space tourism to go along with the license.
You won’t get 15 flights a month with hybrids.