Comments on: Proposed Las Vegas spaceport signs deal with launch startup https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/proposed-las-vegas-spaceport-signs-deal-with-launch-startup/ Thu, 24 Aug 2023 01:16:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Edward https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/proposed-las-vegas-spaceport-signs-deal-with-launch-startup/#comment-1424922 Thu, 24 Aug 2023 01:16:30 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=97854#comment-1424922 Robert wrote: “To put it mildly, this project is hardly a spaceport. It is planned as a casino, a resort, and a flight school with a runway. O-G helps give it the appearance of a spaceport by allowing it to claim orbital launches will take place there.”

The Mojave Air and Space Port is still a spaceport. If the proposed Las Vegas facility is able to put payloads into orbit, then it will earn its spaceport status.

The last time Robert reported on this Las Vegas project, the company didn’t mention a specific launch company to perform this function, just some vague hope that people will be able launch to orbit from there. The company may be making progress on this front.

Finally, the article mentions that the proposed payload launch company is headed by a former SpaceX engineer. This is another case of SpaceX developing space industry leaders, not just launch vehicles and communication constellations.

]]> By: Col Beausabre https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/proposed-las-vegas-spaceport-signs-deal-with-launch-startup/#comment-1424737 Tue, 22 Aug 2023 18:08:24 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=97854#comment-1424737 During WW2, the US built tons of airbases across the Mid and Southwest. Postwar, almost all were sold to the local county or city for a dollar each. You can tell them easily, the three runways laid out in an A pattern with street names like A Drive, 3rd Street, etc on the grounds. At least in the Eighties, many still had their WW2 era buildings, some converted, but most boarded up with “Industrial Site Available” signs out front. I can remember flying into one in Idaho when I had a private license that proudly proclaimed itself as being “XYZ International Airport”. I went to the one open building – serving as control tower, passenger and freight terminal, and Fixed Based Operator’s (“Official Cessna Dealer”/”Learn To Fly”/Etc) Office – obviously Base Operations back in the day, you practically expected to hear the B-17s cranking up in the background when you weren’t looking out a window – to pay my landing fee and for gas and picked up an airline brochure from the empty passenger lounge along with a coke from the vending machine on my way back to my flying machine. Looking at the brochure while I quenched my thirst, I found the place lived up to its billing. It had one, single engine puddle jumper flight to and from a spot on the Canadian prairies each way on weekdays. It’s now probably a ” Spaceport”. as well.

As a financial guy, I detect the sounds of too much cash sloshing around the Street looking for the Next Big Thing.

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