Plans to develop a commercial spaceport are in the works, with a estimated cost of $265 million (USD). The location will be about an hour from Dubai, and already has commitments for $30 million (USD). Known as the UAE Spaceport, or the Ras Al Khaimah spaceport, it will be used to launch suborbital tourist flights.
The suborbital space transportation system has been designed by Myasishchev Design Bureau, a leading Russian aerospace organization which has developed a wide-array of high performance aircraft and space systems. Explorer, as it has been named, will have the capacity to transport up to five people to space and is designed to optimize the customer experience of space travel, while maintaining the highest degree of safety.
Funding for the project includes the government of Ras Al Khamiah, Space Adventures and Prodea.Space Adventures, the company behind the UAE Spaceport, is the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space, is headquartered in Arlington, Va. with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for orbital spaceflight missions to the International Space Station, commercial missions around the moon, Zero-Gravity and MiG flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts. The company’s advisory board comprises Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, shuttle astronauts Kathy Thornton, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, Charles Walker, Norm Thagard, Sam Durrance, Byron Lichtenberg, Pierre Thuot and Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott.
Dubai has been developing with a frenzy in recent years. Their soon to open amusement park (DubaiLand) will be twice as large as Disney World, they’re host to many of the most advance architectural designs, and the Spaceport will be another attraction as interest in space tourism also develops.
This is not the only spaceport, although it will probably be the most advance. List of spaceports