Otherworldly ventures eye Las Vegas

Diana Sahagun

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

A squadron of space cowboys are eyeing Las Vegas as a new launching pad for out-of-this-world ventures, including moon-orbiting passenger planes.

And while it sounds like science fiction, several area companies are touting serious plans, backed by serious money, in the race to provide the unworldly new service.

The proximity of the Nevada Test Site is one reason the talk is shuttling around the Las Vegas Valley.

Millionaire Robert Bigelow's company will be before the North Las Vegas Planning Commission Wednesday night, where it is expected to receive approval for a 40-acre space campus.

The Planning Commission will review final site plans for the space campus proposed for Brooks Avenue and Clayton Street. The plans call for a rocket-shaped building, visitors' center and six other buildings.

Bigelow originally announced plans for his dream last year, with a location near Red Rock Canyon.

The development plan expected to be approved Wednesday is for the first phase of the new site's overall development.

Bigelow has said he plans to break ground on his space campus next year. His company has plans to design, engineer, build and assemble hardware to be launched into space.

Bigelow -- who owns the local Budget Suites motel chain -- has also pledged $500 million of his own money to fund the development of Translunar Cruise Ships, with the ultimate goal of taking 100 guests and a crew of 50 on six-day cruises to the moon.

Several companies based in and out of Las Vegas are joining in on the race to shuttle tourists to the moon, or to simulate the moon's characteristics on Earth.

Watching with great interest is Tim Carlson, president and CEO of Nevada Test Site Development Corp., a federally funded nonprofit organization promoting the Nevada Test Site for use by private companies.

Carlson's agency is promoting a number of projects that hope to use the Test Site as a launching pad for space travel.

Lockheed Martin, for example, is developing VentureStar, a reusable rocket that would power private crafts into space. Technical difficulties have not yet been surmounted but work is moving forward, Carlson said.

"Materials are the major problem," Carlson said. "The kinds of materials needed to lighten the vehicle and straighten the vehicle are not available today, but they are working on that."

Kistler Aerospace is also designing a craft proposed to be launched from Australia and the Nevada Test Site.

Kistler is still hunting for funding but has a reputation for developing workable technology.

"We still feel very comfortable that they are the leader in the reusable launch vehicle industry," Carlson said. "Kistler could be servicing the satellite market, and also the international space market.

"Robert Bigelow is thinking far enough down the road to be a part of that process."

While companies are planning to allow tourists to visit the moon, Al Hastings, of Hastings Chariots, is developing rockets that will simulate the lack of gravity on the moon for the purpose of experiments.

While the rockets won't be launched to the moon, the rockets, proposed to be launched from the Test Site, would simulate microgravity (one-sixth the force of gravity) -- which Hastings says could be used for research and experiments to create better materials.

By next year, Hastings hopes to launch an unmanned test rocket.

Carlson says space tourism is an emerging trend.

"There's no reason why space will not become a tourism market," Carlson said. "It's just a matter of when. There are those who are trying to push that envelope, and we appreciate that. It's good for the nation and our community."

Zero-G Corp., based in Texas, is another company that sees the sky as the limit. The company's Bob Williams, who worked for NASA for 35 years, the last 25 in NASA's Zero Gravity Training Plane, hopes to bring a version of the "Vomit Comet" to Las Vegas.

The "Vomit Comet" is a modified jetliner used to train astronauts, the same kind of plane that trained astronaut Alan Shephard and that was featured in the film, "Apollo 13."