For humans to conquer the cosmos, the first step is to build a facility to enable launch of rockets. Like an airport, a SpacePort is the place where rockets are used to send humans and spacecrafts orbit and deep space.
The first satellite ever launched into orbit, Sputnik1 happened 61 years ago at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The site is still heavily used for Soyuz astronaut astronauts launches into the international Stations.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a total of 29 spaceports have been used to send crafts into orbit and beyond. Twenty-one of these are still active today and only three have ever sent humans into space.
The location of a spaceport offer different advantages to the space mission. Spaceports located closer to the equator gives a rocket an extra boost due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis .
The circumference of the Earth at the equator is roughly 40,000km and this value reduces going towards the poles. For every point on the earth to complete one full rotation in 24hours, points closer to the equator will have to travel faster than points closer to the poles. This extra boost makes the launch more efficient.
Spaceports located closer to the poles are ideal for missions to reach polar orbits or orbits with higher inclination angles.
Spaceports carry out either a vertical launch or a horizontal launch. A vertical launch is the traditional rocket launch. An upright rocket ignites and lifts off straight up. A horizontal launch means a rocket is attached to an airplane and when the airplane reaches a desired altitude the rocket blasts into orbit.
In the United Kingdom, 4 new spaceports are planned to built. A vertical launch complex in planned for Scotland and horizontal launch complexes are planned for Cornwell, Glasgow and North Wales.
If the space industry keeps growing at a steady pace and cost of launch reduces, spaceports will become as common as airports. One major concerns will be the environmental hazards they will pose due to noise pollution and rocket fuel spills.
