New facility would rival Spaceport America in New Mexico, and Spaceport Sweden.
In what would be the second major commercial spaceport outside of the United States, plans for a facility somewhere in Great Britian have been set in motion.
Sky News broke the list of eight potential spaceport sites across the pond, with the list expected to be made official tomorrow.
Six of the eight proposed sites (Campbeltown, Kinloss, Leuchars, Lossiemouth, Prestwick and Stornoway) are in Scotland, which is about to vote on an independence referendum in September. The other two sites are in Wales (Llanbedr), and England (Newquay).
The possibility of Scotland’s independence could shift the site choice to less uncertain choices.
The UK is quickly becoming one of the world’s more dominant forces in the space industry. The sector wants eight percent of the world’s total space enterprise/exploration market by 2020, and the industry is now a generating about $9 billion in revenue per year.
Private space enterprise, fueled by the likes of SpaceX, is taking off like a rocket, but commercial spaceflight has yet to be fully realized. cleared some red tape with the FAA.
Source: Sky News
Published: Jul 14, 2014 04:25 pm