spacetoday.net: UK narrows list of potential spaceport sites

Posted: Wed, Mar 4, 2015, 7:26 AM ET (1226 GMT)
UK spaceport illustration (UKSA)

The British government announced Tuesday it has cut two sites from a list of eight potential locations for a commercial spaceport, but at least two of the remaining locations may no longer be interested in hosting launches. The government, in its response to criteria prepared last year by the Civil Aviation Authority that included a shortlist of eight sites, said two of them, RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss Barracks, would not be considered because of their military uses. A third base, RAF Leuchars, would be limited to temporary use as a spaceport. Of the five remaining sites, the public corporation that owns or operates two of them said it had no plans to submit spaceport proposals for them. The British government has indicated it would like to have at least one commercial spaceport, capable of supporting suborbital spacecraft and air-launch systems that takeoff and land horizontally, in operation by 2018.