Real Estate Developer Attempting to Raise $310 Million for Las Vegas Spaceport
LAS VEGAS, NV – Las Vegas commercial real estate developer Rob Lauer on Tuesday reportedly began attempting to gather investors to put up $310 million to construct a private spaceport in Clark County.
If his endeavor is successful, Lauer plans to use the investment capital to form a publicly-traded company that would build the Las Vegas Spaceport, an extensive facility which would consist of a launching pad, a runway for spaceplanes, a control tower, a flight school, and a 200-room casino resort.
The spaceport is slated to be built on a 240-acre plot of land located between Las Vegas and Pahrump that Lauer previously purchased in November 2022, and the developer notes that this is a long-term project for him, having already been brainstorming the details for the past year.
Currently 37 companies are in the process of developing aircraft, and Lauer anticipates at least one of them being able to develop a vehicle within the next decade that would be able to achieve Earth orbit in order to begin a wave of so-called “space tourism,” including the possibility of such vehicles visiting an orbiting hotel.
Lauer said that the location outside of Las Vegas that he has picked for the spaceport is perfect due to the fact that the city attracts millions of tourists on an annual basis, with many of them willing to shell out big bucks in order to enjoy a unique travel experience.
The forward-thinking entrepreneur said that safety will be of a paramount concern to the facility, and to that end Lauer noted he has extensively consulted with numerous aerospace experts in order to educate himself on the best way to build the Las Vegas Spaceport from the ground up.
However, despite how impressive Lauer’s plans may look on the surface, Amanda Bellarmino, an assistant professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, said that they realistically don’t appear to be feasible for a number of reasons.
The challenges I see with space tourism are safety concerns and cost. Right now it seems like an activity for a few very wealthy people,” she said. “There would also be safety concerns, especially with the recent tragedy with the Titan submersible. Unless there is the type of changes we saw with airline travel in the early 20th century in terms of safety and cost reduction, I do not think it will have mass appeal.”
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