sciencetech-blog

comments

In just four years, space tourists could be blasting into orbit from one of eight sites named today as possible locations for the UK's first spaceport.

Six of the sites are in Scotland, including Glasgow Prestwick Airport and RAF Lossiemouth. Newquay has been selected in England and Llanbedr in Wales.

All sites have to meet strict criteria, including being a safe distance from densely populated areas and a runway that can be extended to more than 3,000m (9,842ft).

Britain's first commercial spaceport could be based in any one of these eight locations, and would act as a hub for flights by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and XCOR Space Expeditions

The aim is to use the spaceport to launch tourists into space as well as commercial satellites.

The move is designed to take advantage of the anticipated burgeoning space tourism industry. By 2030, the UK government hopes to capture 10 per cent of the world's space market.

If this target is met, opening up the UK tourism industry to specialist operators such as Virgin Galactic and XCor could be worth £40 billion and provide 100,000 jobs.

Making the announcement at the Farnborough Air Show, Aviation Minister Robert Goodwill said: 'In order to lead the way on commercial space flight, we will need to establish a spaceport that enables us to operate regular flights.

Richard Branson's dream to charter commercial space flights has taken a step closer to reality. His company, Virgin Galactic, yesterday signed a deal with U.S. aviation authorities to let it blast paying customers into space on SpaceShipTwo (pictured)

'The work published today has got the ball rolling - now we want to work with others to take forward this exciting project and have Britain's first spaceport up and running by 2018.'

There have been reports that the government is hoping Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson will build the port as part of his Virgin Galactic project.

Virgin Galactic's first flights are scheduled to take off from a purpose-built spaceport in New Mexico, USA, at the start of the year, with passengers paying £120,000 ($206,000) for a 150-minute flight that will climb to heights of around 62 miles (100km) to achieve zero gravity for approximately six minutes.

The spaceport will have its own dedicated and separate air space in order to manage flights into orbit safely.

After a period of consultation, the UK government said further work will be done to develop those locations remaining on the site shortlist.

XCOR Aerospace is based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Its Lynx spacecraft, illustration pictured, seats two people - the passenger and a pilot - and tickets cost $95,000 (£57,000). This is almost two thirds the price of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: 'Space is big business for the UK. It already contributes £11.3 billion to the economy each year, supporting nearly 35,000 jobs.

New figures show that the space industry employs 34,000 people and contributes £11billion to economy

'That's why it's important for us to prepare the UK for new launcher technology and take steps towards meeting our ambition of establishing the first British spaceport by 2018.

'Exploring the opportunities that commercial space flight presents, and potentially making strategic investments in this area, will support the growth of this thriving industry and underpin the economy of tomorrow, making the UK the place for space.'

Sources told the Mail on Sunday that the need for the base to be 'remote' and secure meant there was more chance it would be on a Scottish site.

Over the weekend, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander, MP for Inverness, talked up the chances of Scotland leading the UK drive to open up 'the final frontier of commercial space travel'.

He said: 'Scotland has a proud association with space exploration. We celebrated Neil Armstrong's Scottish ancestry when he became the first man on the moon and only last week an amazing Scottish company was responsible for building the UK Space Agency's first satellite.'

But sources also privately made clear it was 'highly unlikely' the spaceport would ever be built in Scotland if it voted for independence in September's referendum.

One said: 'An independent Scotland would be free to bid for this sort of thing but I doubt it would have the resources to do it.'

THE MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE RACE FOR SPACE

Virgin Galactic - Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS

The company's SpaceShipTwo holds two pilots and six passengers who are seated with two large windows, one to the side and one overhead, so they can enjoy the view if they do not want to float freely when they achieve weightlessness.

The SS2 is 60ft long with a 90-inch diameter cabin.

The spaceship is connected to Virgin Galactic's carrier aircraft White Knight Two and when it reaches the right altitude, SS2 is released and propelled forward and upward, accelerating into space at almost 2,500mph.

Clients have paid $250,000 (£150,000) for a ticket, including celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Tom Hanks.

The SS2 (pictured below) completed its third supersonic test flight in January.

Space Adventures - Armadillo Aerospace

Space Adventures has arranged all eight of the flights to orbital space - when the spacecraft is travelling fast enough to go into orbit - completed by seven private citizens so far.

British soprano Sarah Brightman is due to be the next passenger and is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station in October 2015.

The company has partnered with Armadillo Aerospace to offer suborbital flights to space.
The Armadillo suborbital rocket seats two passengers and is flown autonomously from the mission control centre. It lands and takes off vertically while the large windows offer panoramic views of the Earth and sky.

The rocket reaches 100km above earth and uses ethanol and liquid oxygen fuelled engines, which have flown more than 200 test flights in the last decade.

Blue Origin - Set up by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

The vehicle includes a crew capsule carrying three or four astronauts on a separate rocket-powered propulsion module.

Following lift-off, the combined vehicles accelerate for about two-and-a-half minutes before the propulsion module shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the crew capsule.

The propulsion module finishes its flight, descends to Earth, and autonomously performs a rocket-powered vertical landing while the crew capsule coasts to the edge of space.

After descent and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the crew capsule will land under parachutes near the launch site.

SpaceX

SpaceX's Falcon 9 reusable development vehicle (pictured right) is already in test mode and it will eventually deliver the smaller Dragon capsule containing humans into space.

The Dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and safely return cargo to Earth, a feat previously achieved only by governments.

Astrium 

The business jet-sized spaceplane will take off and land conventionally from a standard airport runway using its jet engines.

At an altitude of about 12km, the rocket engine will be ignited and in only 80 seconds the craft will climb to 60km altitude.

The rocket propulsion system will then be shut down as the plane's inertia carries it on to over 100km, enabling passengers to hover weightlessly. 

Operators using the spaceplane could offer safe space flight for a price per passenger of around €200,000 (£120,000).