Spaceports Can Be Found Throughout the World

Spaceports operate around the world, offering different capabilities and scales of operation – ranging from a basic control center, transportation infrastructure and launch platform to highly sophisticated facilities such as Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. KSC and the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome are the oldest and    most advanced. But, they are not alone. Following is a list of spaceports around the world.

Orbital Spaceports: Launch sites for crewed and uncrewed missions, able to put payloads into Earth orbit and beyond; available to civilian and military government customers, commercial companies, and non-profit organizations.
* Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA
* Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA
* Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA
* Wallops Flight Facility/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Virginia, USA
* Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, USA
* Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands (USA)
* Baikonur Cosmodrome, Baikonur, Kazakhstan (Russia)
* Dombarovskiy Missile Base, Yasny, Russia
* Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome, Kapustin Yar, Russia
* Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Plesetsk, Russia
* Alcântara Launch Center, Alcântara, Brazil
* Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Inner Mongolia, China
* Taiyuan Launch Center, Shanxi Province, China
* Xichang Launch Center, Sichuan Province, China
* Guiana Space Centre,Kourou, French Guiana (European Space Agency)
* Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India
* Palmachim Air Force Base, Rishon LeZion, Israel
* Semnan Launch Site, Semnan Province, Iran
* Tanegashima Space Center, Tanegashima Island, Japan
* Uchinoura Space Center, Uchinoura, Japan
* Odyssey Launch Platform, Equatorial Pacific, South of Hawaii (multinational)

Suborbital Spaceports: Launch facilities that can place objects in space but not at orbital velocities; generally lack complex launch pads and ground equipment, or have geographic restrictions such as an inadequate buffer area between their facilities and populated areas; lower costs and fewer restrictions make these facilities attractive to private investors in new space programs focused on suborbital spaceflight, such as personal spaceflight.
* California Spaceport, California, USA
* Spaceport America, New Mexico, USA
* Mojave Spaceport, California, USA
* Esrange (Spaceport Sweden) Kiruna, Sweden

Complete information about these Spaceports and other, proposed Spaceports is available in The Space Report 2009: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity. To purchase a copy, CD or e-book, go to www.TheSpaceReport.org. 

This article is part of Space Watch: June 2009 (Volume: 8, Issue: 6).