The present and future of spaceports

With the rise of space tourism and commercial spaceflight, spaceports are popping up all over the globe

1 SpaceX South Texas Launch Site, United States

Also known as the Boca Chica Launch Site, SpaceX has had great support from the Texas state government and will continue with the construction of the spaceport and apply for an FAA license upon completion.

Spaceport Sweden, Kiruna

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Active in the development of commercial manned spaceflight since 2005, Sweden’s contribution to the commercial space industry is its Spaceport Sweden, located in Kiruna in the Arctic Circle, which will hopefully accommodate Virgin Galactic.

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

3 Blue Origin West Texas Launch Site, United States

As New Shepard continues to climb to new heights, Blue Origin will use its FAA-licensed launch site in the West Texas plains to continue to test and improve the world’s first fully reusable vertically launched space vehicle.

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This Russian-leased spaceport has been launching astronauts and tourists for decades now, being the launch site used to send astronauts to the ISS. Roscosmos will continue to launch from this spaceport in the foreseeable future.

5 Spaceport America, New Mexico, United States

The world’s first spaceport built for purely commercial operations is the new home of Virgin Galactic, who has recently announced its ‘Gateway to Space’, a beautiful communal area customers will

use prior to their spaceflight.

6 Hawaii Air and Space Port

Hawaii is looking to improve its economic diversity by introducing a spaceport at Kona International Airport, and it may introduce suborbital point-to-point flights to the mainland United States that will shorten journey times for island commuters.

7 Spaceport Cornwall, United Kingdom

Spaceport Cornwall will accommodate horizontal launches. It will start with Virgin Galactic’s sister company Virgin Orbit launching small satellites. However, it will have great facilities to

accommodate space tourism adventures.

8 Portugal Space, Santa Maria

Portugal looks to crown its newly formed national space agency with the country’s first spaceport in the Azores, which may potentially be let out to space tourism companies such as Virgin Galactic and Sierra Nevada.

9 Al Ain Airport, United Arab Emirates

The UAE Space Agency has big plans for space exploration

and space tourism in the coming years, and it will be looking to use Al Ain Airport in a partnership with Virgin

Galactic to perform spaceflights.

10 Arnhem Space Centre, Australia

Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) is looking to build and operate Australia’s first commercial spaceport in the northern region of the country. This will allow orbital and suborbital access to space for the country.