Celtic sites named as potential spaceport

Airshow has been used as the venue to announce the shortlist of locations for Britain’s first spaceport.

The government announced on Tuesday, at Farnborough Airport, that space tourists could be blasting off from one of eight locations in just four years’ time. Ministers want to establish a UK spaceport by 2018 – the first of its kind outside the US.

Six of the shortlisted sites – Campbeltown Airport; Glasgow Prestwick Airport; Kinloss Barracks; RAF Leuchars; RAF Lossiemouth; and Stornorway Airport – are in Scotland, with the other two potential sites named as Llanbedr Airport, in Wales, and Newquay Cornwall Airport.

Speaking at the airshow, aviation minister Robert Goodwill said: “In order to lead the way on commercial space flight, we will need to establish a spaceport that enables us to operate regular flights.

“The work published today has got the ball rolling.

“Now we want to work with others to take forward this exciting project and have Britain’s first spaceport up and running by 2018.” The plan is to build a spaceport at a remote site where regular airline traffic is low.

The successful location also has to have a longerthan-usual runway or the space to build one.

During the announcement, the government said it hopes to have 10% of the space tourism market by 2030, which could attract operators such as Virgin Galactic and XCor, bringing 100,000 jobs and £40 billion to the economy.

However, no commercial space company has demonstrated a space plane capable of carrying paying passengers. Virgin Galactic, run by Richard Branson, and XCor, are working on space planes that will be orbital vehicles that land like regular planes.

A UK-based spaceport could be used to launch satellites as well as commercial spaceflights.