Three sites in Scotland have been shortlisted as the potential location for the UK's first spaceport.

The list of five includes Campbeltown in Argyll and Bute, Glasgow Prestwick and Stornoway in Scotland. Newquay in England and Llanbedr in Wales are the other two sites, while RAF Leuchars in Fife has been confirmed as a potential temporary facility.

Meanwhile, airfields RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss Barracks in Scotland have been ruled out by ministers for "operational defence reasons".


The UK Government has said it hopes to have the spaceport established by 2018, with the necessary regulatory and licensing arrangements also in place. Focus on the spaceport would be to make space travel commercially viable, it has been said, with the emergence of a new type of low-cost rocket plane that can take people into space, as well as launch satellites into orbit.

A number of factors will determine the final location of the spaceport, particularly one that will limit danger and inconvenience to the general public. As the sites are also located on the coast, it is thought the planes or rockets could operate over the water.

(JP)