FAA Partially Clears Airport at Las Vegas Spaceport for Takeoff
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 some of the plans for a private airport on 240 acres of desert land that its owners hope to transform into the Las Vegas Spaceport.
Las Vegas Executive Airport is where private planes will one day, developers hope, 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.
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.
However, the FAA documents, obtained by KTVN-TV/Las Vegas, only grant partial approval, “with respect to the safe and efficient use of navigable airspace by aircraft and with respect to the safety of persons and property on the ground.”
“This determination does not constitute FAA approval or disapproval of the physical development involved in the proposal,” the documents made it a point to state.
It is not known whether partial approval will satisfy the project’s investors.
Space Frontier Far from Final
Nevertheless, the Las Vegas Spaceport still needs to raise the rest of its expected $310 million cost.
And the 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,” Las Vegas Spaceport CEO Robert Lauer previously told
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 said. “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.
The Las Vegas Spaceport's casino partners might offer space tours as a high-stakes reward to their most loyal customers. The potential investor pledges for the project may require the full FAA approval, as stated in some contingency clauses.
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