Spaceport

For the tourist attraction, see Spaceport (Seacombe).

The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Gagarin's Start launch pad)

A spaceport or cosmodrome (Russian: космодром) is a site for launching (or receiving) spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch sites for purely sub-orbital flights are sometimes called spaceports. In recent years new and proposed sites for suborbital human flights have commonly been named spaceports. Space stations are sometimes called spaceports, in particular if intended as a base for further journeys.

The term rocket launch site is used for any facility from which rockets are launched. It may contain one or more launch pads or suitable sites to mount a transportable launch pad. It is surrounded with large safety area named rocket range or missile range. The range includes the area over which launched rockets are expected to fly, and within which some components of the rockets may land. Tracking stations, vessels, and aircraft are often located in the range to assess the progress of the launches.

Major spaceports often include more than one launch complex, which can be well-separated (for safety reasons) rocket launch sites adapted for different types of launch vehicles. For launch vehicles with liquid propellant, suitable storage facilities and, in some cases, production facilities are necessary. On-site processing facilities for solid propellants are also common.

A spaceport can also include runways for takeoff and landing of spacecraft equipped with wings.

History

The first rockets to reach space were V-2 rockets launched from Peenemünde, Germany during World War II.^[1] The V-2 rockets had a maximum altitude of approximately 60 miles/100 kilometers.^[2]

The world’s first spaceport for orbital and human launches, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan, started as a Soviet military rocket range in 1955. It achieved the first orbital flight (Sputnik 1) in October 1957. The exact location of the cosmodrome was initially held secret. Guesses to its location were misdirected by a name in common with a mining town 320 km away. The position became known in 1957 outside the Soviet Union only after U-2 planes had identified the site by following railway lines in Kazakhstan, although Soviet authorities did not confirm the location for decades.^[3]

The Baikonur Cosmodrome achieved the first launch of a human into space (Yuri Gagarin) in 1961. The launch complex used, Site 1, has reached a special symbolic significance and is commonly called Gagarin's Start. Baikonur was the primary Soviet cosmodrome, and is still widely used by Russia under a lease arrangement with Kazakhstan.

In response to the early Soviet successes, the United States built up a major spaceport complex at Cape Canaveral in Florida. A large number of unmanned flights, as well as the early human flights, were carried out at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. For the Apollo programme, an adjacent spaceport, Kennedy Space Center, was constructed, and achieved the first manned mission to the lunar surface (Apollo 11) in July 1969. It has been the base for all Space Shuttle launches and most of their runway landings. For details on the launch complexes of the two spaceports, see List of Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island launch sites.

The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, is the major European spaceport, with satellite launches that benefit from the location 4 degrees north of the equator.

In October 2003 the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center achieved the first Chinese human spaceflight.

Breaking with tradition, in June 2004 on a runway at Mojave Spaceport, California, a human was for the first time launched to space in a privately funded, suborbital spaceflight, that was intended to pave the way for future commercial spaceflights. The spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, was launched by a carrier airplane taking off horizontally.

Placement considerations

Rockets can most easily reach satellite orbits if launched near the equator in an easterly direction, as this maximizes use of the Earth's rotational speed (465 m/s). Such launches also give a good orientation for arriving at a geostationary orbit. For polar orbits and Molniya orbits this does not apply.

Altitude of the launch site is not a driving factor because most of the delta-v for a satellite launch is spent on achieving the required horizontal orbital speed. The small gains from a few kilometers of extra altitude at the start does not usually off-set the ground transport problems in mountainous terrain.

Many spaceports have been placed at existing military installations, such as intercontinental ballistic missile ranges, which is not always ideal for satellite launches.

A rocket launch site is built as far as possible away from major population centers in order to mitigate risk to bystanders should a rocket experience a catastrophic failure. In many cases a launch site is built close to major bodies of water to ensure that no components are shed over populated areas. Typically a spaceport site is large enough that, should a vehicle explode, it will not endanger human lives or adjacent launch pads.

Planned sites of spaceports for sub-orbital tourist spaceflight often make use of existing ground infrastructure, including runways. The nature of the local view from 100 km altitude is also a factor to consider.

Space tourism

The space tourism industry (see List of private spaceflight companies) is being targeted by spaceports in numerous locations worldwide. The establishment of spaceports for tourist trips raises legal issues, which are only beginning to be addressed.^[4][5]

Spaceports with achieved launches of humans

The following is a table of spaceports and launch complexes with a documented achieved launch of humans to space (more than 100 km altitude). Spaceports that have only achieved human sub-orbital flights are listed at the end. Otherwise the sorting order is spaceport by spaceport according to the time of the first human launch.

Spaceport	Launch complex	Launcher	Spacecraft	Flights	Years	Operation
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan	Site 1	Vostok (rocket)	Vostok 1-6	6 Orbital	1961–1963	Governmental
	Site 1	Voskhod (rocket)	Voskhod 1-2	2 Orbital	1964–1965	Governmental
	Site 1, Site 31	Soyuz (rocket)	Soyuz 1-40 †	37 Orbital	1967–1981	Governmental
	Site 1, Site 31	Soyuz (rocket)	Soyuz-T 2-15	14 Orbital	1980–1986	Governmental
	Site 1	Soyuz (rocket)	Soyuz-TM 2-34	33 Orbital	1987–2002	Governmental
	Site 1	Soyuz (rocket)	Soyuz-TMA 1-21	21 Orbital	2002-	Governmental
	Site 1	Soyuz (rocket)	Soyuz TMA-M 1-2	2 Orbital	2010-	Governmental
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida (US)	LC5	Redstone	Mercury 3-4	2 Sub-O	1961-1961	Governmental
	LC14	Atlas	Mercury 6-9	4 Orbital	1962–1963	Governmental
	LC19	Titan II	Gemini 3-12	10 Orbital	1965–1966	Governmental
	LC34	Saturn IB	Apollo 7	1 Orbital	1968-1968	Governmental
Kennedy Space Center, Florida (US)	LC39	Saturn V	Apollo 8-17	10 Lun/Or	1968–1970	Governmental
	LC39	Saturn IB	Skylab 2-4	3 Orbital	1973–1974	Governmental
	LC39	Saturn IB	Apollo-Soyuz	1 Orbital	1975-1975	Governmental
	LC39	STS 1-135 ‡	Space Shuttle	134 Orbital	1981-2011	Governmental
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China	Area 4 (SLS)	Long March 2F	Shenzhou 5-7	3 Orbital	2003-	Governmental
Edwards Air Force Base, California (US)	Runway	B-52	X-15 90-91	2 Sub-O	1963-1963	Governmental
Mojave Spaceport, California (US)	Runway	White Knight	SpaceShipOne 15-17	3 Sub-O	2004-2004	Private

† Three of the Soyuz missions were unmanned and are not counted (Soyuz 2, Soyuz 20, Soyuz 34).

‡ STS-51-L (Challenger) failed to reach orbit and is not counted. STS-107 (Columbia) reached orbit and is therefore included in the count (disaster struck on re-entry).

Spaceports with achieved satellite launches

The following is a table of spaceports with a documented achieved launch to orbit. The table is sorted according to the time of the first launch that achieved satellite orbit insertion. The first column gives the geographical location. Operations from a different country are indicated in the last column. A launch is counted as one also in cases where the payload consists of multiple satellites.

Spaceport	Years (orbital)	Launches to orbit or inter- planetary	Launch vehicles (operators)
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Baikonur/Tyuratam, Kazakhstan [6]	1957-	>1000[citation needed]	R-7/Soyuz, Kosmos, Proton, Zenit, Energia
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA[7]	1958-	>400[citation needed]	Delta, Scout, Atlas, Titan, Saturn, Athena, Falcon 9
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA[8]	1959-	>500[citation needed]	Delta, Scout, Atlas, Titan, Taurus, Athena, Minotaur
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA [9]	1961-1985	19[citation needed]	Scout
Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia[10]	1962-	>100[citation needed]	Kosmos
Hammaguir French Special Weapons Test Centre, Algeria[11]	1965–1967	4[citation needed]	Diamant A (France)
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia[12]	1966-	>1000[citation needed]	Soyuz, Kosmos
San Marco platform, Broglio Space Centre, Malindi, Kenya[13]	1967–1988	9[citation needed]	Scout (ASI and Sapienza, Italy)
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA[7]	1967-	151[citation needed]	17 Saturn, 134 Space Shuttle
Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia [14]	1967-1971	2[citation needed]	Redstone (WRESAT), Black Arrow (UK Prospero X-3)
Uchinoura Space Center (Kagoshima), Japan[15]	1970–2006	27[citation needed]	Mu
Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana [16]	1970-	>200[citation needed]	7 Diamant, 9+5+10+113+59 Ariane, 1 Soyuz (ESA)
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China [17]	1970-	34[citation needed]	Long March
Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), Andhra Pradesh, India[18]	1980-	28[citation needed]	3 SLV, 2 ASLV, 19 PSLV, 4 GSLV
Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China[19]	1984-	>60[citation needed]	Long March
Tanegashima Space Center, Japan[20]	1986-	32[citation needed]	9 H-I, 5 H-II, 18 H-IIA
Palmachim Air Force Base, Israel[21]	1988-	6[citation needed]	Shavit
Various airport runways (B52, Stargazer)	1990-	37[citation needed]	Pegasus (Orbital Sciences Corporation)
Svobodny Cosmodrome, Amur Oblast, Russia[22]	1997–2006	5[citation needed]	Start-1
Delta class submarine, Barents Sea	1998-	2[citation needed]	Shtil' (Russia)
Ocean Odyssey mobile platform, Pacific Ocean	1999–	29[citation needed]	Zenit-3SL (Sea Launch)
Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, USA[23][24]	2001-2001	2[citation needed]	Athena, Minotaur IV
Yasny Cosmodrome (Dombarovsky), Orenburg Oblast, Russia[25]	2006-	4[citation needed]	Dnepr-1
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), Virginia, USA[26]	2006-	4[citation needed]	Minotaur I
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China[27]	2007-	4[citation needed]	Long March
Omelek, Marshall Islands	2008-	2[citation needed]	Falcon 1
Semnan, Iran[28]	2009-	2[citation needed]	Safir

See also

Spaceflight portal

• List of rocket launch sites
• List of human spaceflights
• Launch pad
• Spaceflight
• Orbital spaceflight
• Sub-orbital spaceflight
• Port
• Office of Commercial Space Transportation (USA)
• Mojave spaceport
• Range safety
• Spaceport America
• Spaceport Curaçao
• Spaceport Sweden

References

1. ^ Dyson, Marianne J. (2007). Space and astronomy: decade by decade. Infobase Publishing. p. 95. ISBN 9780816055364. 
2. ^ "V-2 with Meillerwagen". National Museum of the United States Air Force. 4 February 2004. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=511. Retrieved 16 May 2011. 
3. ^ Russian Space Web on Baikonur
4. ^ Londin, Jesse (9 February 2007). "Space Law Probe: Virginia Leads The Way". blogspot.com. http://spacelawprobe.blogspot.com/2007/02/virginia-leads-way.html. Retrieved 2007-04-28. 
5. ^ Boyle, Alan (13 June 2006). "Regulators OK Oklahoma spaceport - Suborbital test flights could begin in 2007, setting stage for tourists". MSNBC. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13304491. Retrieved 2006-06-26. 
6. ^ Baikonur – astronautix.com
7. ^ ^{a b} Cape Canaveral - astronautix.com
8. ^ Vandenberg – astronautix.com
9. ^ [http://www.astronautix.com/sites/walsland.htm Wallops Island - astronautix.com
10. ^ Kapustin Yar – astronautix.com
11. ^ Hammaguira – astronautix.com
12. ^ [1]
13. ^ San Marco – astronautix.com
14. ^ Woomera LA5B – astronautix.com
15. ^ Uchinoura/Kagoshima – astronautix.com
16. ^ [2]
17. ^ Jiuquan – astronautix.com
18. ^ Sriharikota – astronautix.com
19. ^ Xichang – astronautix.com
20. ^ Tanegashima – astronautix.com
21. ^ Palmachim – astronautix.com
22. ^ Svobodniy – astronautix.com
23. ^ Kodiak – astronautix.com
24. ^ Kodiak Readies for Quick Launch, Aviation Week, April 2010, accessed 2010-04-26. "Alaska's remote Kodiak Launch Complex is state-of-the-art, has a perfect mission record, and will soon be able to launch a satellite-carrying rocket within 24 hours of mission go-ahead."
25. ^ Dombarovskiy – astronautix.com
26. ^ Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport website
27. ^ Taiyuan – astronautix.com
28. ^ Semnan – astronautix.com

External links

• MSNBC: Spaceports compete in race for business
• Spaceport could be in the stars for Sheboygan The Daily Cardinal
• HighBeam Research: Spaceflight of fancy: Lawmakers question fiscal feasibility of Southern New Mexico's proposed spaceport; supporters count on jobs.