The British commercial spaceport competition was a plan by the

UK government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

announced in early 2014 to select a site, build a commercial

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport'', and even more so ''cosmodrome'', has traditionally been used for sites capable ...

, and have it in operation by 2018. Although six sites were shortlisted for possible selection by 2015, the competition was ended without a selection in May 2016 and replaced by a statement from the UK government regulatory agency that they would support rules that would allow a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

spaceport to be built at any suitable location. The UK-sponsored spaceport envisioned in the competition was intended to be used to launch both human-carrying

flights Flight is the process by which an object moves without direct support from a surface. Flight may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Flight'' (1929 film), an American adventure film * ''Flight'' (2009 film), a South Korean d ...

and

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

missions.

History

The spaceport competition was part of a broader plan announced by the government in April 2014. Earlier references and statements about a UK spaceport, with explicit statements about

HTHL Aircraft can have different ways to take off and land. Conventional airplanes accelerate along the ground until sufficient lift is generated for takeoff, and reverse the process to land. Some airplanes can take off at low speed, this being a short ...

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...

s, date back at least to 2012.UK.gov to clear way for Britain's first SPACEPORT
11 July 2012. A site selection process got underway in 2014. The sites of interest were principally

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

, such as

Campbeltown Airport Campbeltown Airport ( gd, Port-adhair Cheann Loch Chille Chiarain) is located at Machrihanish, west of Campbeltown, near the tip of the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll and Bute on the west coast of Scotland. The airport was formerly known as RA ...

Glasgow Prestwick Airport Glasgow Prestwick Airport () is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and southwest of Glasgow. It is the less busy of the two airports serving the western part of ...

Kinloss Barracks Kinloss Barracks is a military installation located near the village of Kinloss, on the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland. Until 2012 it was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station, RAF Kinloss. History RAF Kinloss The Royal Air Force station ...

RAF Leuchars Royal Air Force Leuchars or RAF Leuchars was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located in Leuchars, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the station was home to fighter aircraft which policed northern UK airspac ...

RAF Lossiemouth Royal Air Force Lossiemouth or more commonly RAF Lossiemouth is a military airfield located on the western edge of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland. Lossiemouth is one of the largest and busiest fast-jet stations in the ...

and

Stornoway Airport Stornoway Airport is an airfield located east of the town of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland. The airfield was opened in 1937, and was then used mainly for military purposes. The Royal Air Force had an air base (RAF Stornoway) th ...

, but they also included

Llanbedr Airport Llanbedr Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Llanbedr), formerly RAE Llanbedr (ICAO: EGOD), is an operational general aviation airport located in the Snowdonia National Park near the village of Llanbedr, Gwynedd, northwest Wales. History It opened in 19 ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Newquay Cornwall Airport Cornwall Airport Newquay is the main commercial airport for Cornwall, United Kingdom, located at Mawgan in Pydar, northeast of the town of Newquay on Cornwall's north coast. Its runway was operated by RAF St Mawgan before 2008, and is now o ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

." The first phase of the evaluation process objective was to develop a shortlist.

Shortlist: early 2015

The shortlist was released in March 2015, and only two airfields were ruled out. In narrowing the field, the overriding imperative of the licensing authorities was to find a location that limits danger and inconvenience to the general public. This led to all five of the short-listed locations being situated in coastal areas. The government ruled out two airfields in its consultation process:

and

, in Scotland, due to operational defence reasons. The shortlist locations selected were: *

was confirmed as a potential temporary facility.UK ministers issue spaceport shortlist
''BBC''. Only five sites remained in the competition as of April 2016. The RAF Leuchars site had been removed from the shortlist prior to that time.

End of competition: 2016

The competition was ended in May 2016, prior to the selection of any single spaceport location. Instead, the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

announced that the regulatory rules would be modified so that "any suitable location" might become a spaceport.

References

External links

Spaceport: locations and criteria
{{Spaceport Spaceports in Europe *

History

Shortlist: early 2015

End of competition: 2016

See also

References

External links