Spaceports

Spaceports are facilities used to launch, and in some cases land, spacecraft. Spaceports are similar to airports and seaports but have some unique features and requirements. They have to be able to support the assembly and launch of large, powerful rockets and the satellites or other cargoes that they carry. There are only a handful of spaceports around the world, although more may be built as the demand for launches grow and the types of launch vehicles evolve.

Spaceport Components

The most familiar element of a spaceport is the launch pad. Originally just a patch of ground where rockets were hastily set up and launched, launch pads have evolved considerably as rockets became larger and more complex. Most launch pads have a tower, known as a gantry, which stands next to the rocket. Through the gantry, technicians have access to various levels of the rocket so they can check and repair systems, add propellant, and in the case of piloted rockets, provide a way for crews to get in and out.

Below the pad itself are pathways called flame trenches, which allow the hot exhaust from the rocket to move away from the pad at the time of the launch, so that it does not damage portions of the pad or the rocket itself. Some launch pads, such as the ones used by the U.S. space shuttle, have water towers nearby that spray water onto the pad at launch. The water is designed to suppress the noise and vibration of the launch, which otherwise could reflect off the pad and damage the shuttle.

The launch pad itself, though, is only a small part of a spaceport. Other facilities at spaceports include hangars on which sections of rockets are put together before moving them to the launch pad. The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, built for the Apollo program and used by shuttles today, is one of the largest buildings in the world when measured by volume.^* The shuttle and some other rockets are transported vertically from the assembly building to the launch site using large, slow-moving flatbed transporters. In Russia, launch vehicles are carried out to the pad horizontally on conventional rail lines. In some cases rockets are assembled, stage by stage, at the launch site itself.

Spaceports also operate control centers where the progress of a count-down and launch is monitored. Nearby is radar that keeps tracks of both the rocket in flight as well as any planes or boats that may venture too close to the launch site. Spaceports usually notify pilots and ship captains of the regions of the ocean that will be off-limits during a launch because rocket stages or debris could fall there.

Spaceports of the World

One of the best-known spaceports in the world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) John F. Kennedy Space Center, is located at Cape Canaveral, Florida. There are actually two separate spaceports there: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the U.S. Air Force's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). NASA uses KSC exclusively for launches of the space shuttle, from two launch complexes: 39A and 39B. The same pads were used to launch the Saturn 5 rockets for the Apollo Moon missions. CCAFS is home to a number of launch facilities for unmanned military and commercial rockets, including the Atlas, Delta, and Titan.

There are several other spaceports in the United States. Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California is used for launches of several types of unmanned rockets, including Delta and Titan boosters, for NASA, the military, and private companies. Vandenberg is used for launches into polar orbit because the only clear path for launches is south, over the Pacific Ocean.

The Kodiak Launch Complex, located on Kodiak Island in Alaska, was used for the first time for an unmanned orbital launch in 2001. Wallops Island, Virginia, has a launching pad for an expendable rocket, as well as runways for aircraft carrying the Pegasus small-winged rocket.

Outside of the United States there are several very active spaceports. Europe established a spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America in the late 1960s for European launches. The European Space Agency and the commercial firm Arianespace use Kourou for launches of the Ariane 4 and 5 boosters.

Russia's primary launch site is at Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, formerly part of the Soviet Union. Baikonur is used by a number of Russian rockets, including manned Soyuz missions. Unlike other spaceports, Baikonur is located in the middle of a continent, far from the ocean; spent rocket stages are dropped on desolate regions of Kazakhstan and Siberia rather than in the ocean. Russia also operates spaceports in Plesetsk, in northern Russia, and Svobodny, which it uses for some unmanned flights and military missions.

The Future

Like the rockets that use them, spaceports are evolving. As reusable launch vehicles, which launch and return, become more common, spaceports will have to support pre-launch preparations and post-landing operations. KSC handles both because most shuttle missions end with a landing back at the center. Spaceports will also have to develop facilities to maintain these vehicles and prepare them for their next flights, much like at airports.

Currently even the busiest spaceports, such as Kourou and Cape Canaveral, handle only a couple dozen launches a year, which is near the maximum supportable with current technology. In the late 1990s a study by NASA found that new technologies and an improved infrastructure would be needed to support higher flight rates.

Greater demand for spaceflight should also lead to the creation of new spaceports. The development of single-stage reusable launch vehicles—which travel from the ground to space without dropping any stages along the way—would make it possible for spaceports to be located in many areas, not just near oceans. In the United States alone over a dozen states, including inland states such as Idaho and Oklahoma, have expressed an interest in developing spaceports for future reusable launch vehicles. The creation of these new spaceports could be a major step toward making space travel as routine as air travel.

see also Launch Services (volume 1); Launch Sites (volume 3); Launch Vehicles, Expendable (volume 1); Launch Vehicles, Reusable (volume 1); Reusable Launch Vehicles (volume 4); Rocket Engines (volume 1); Vehicle Assembly Building (volume 3).

Jeff Foust

Bibliography

Benson, Charles D., and William B. Flaherty. Gateway to the Moon: Building the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2001.

Internet Resources

"Introduction to the Spaceport." Arianespace. <http://www.arianespace.com/us/spaceport/indexover.htm>.

"Renewing America's Space Launch Infrastructure and Operations." Vision Spaceport. <http://www.visionspaceport.org/Vision%20Spaceport%20Report_042701.pdf>.

Spinoffs See Made with Space Technology (Volume 1).

^*The Vehicle Assembly Building is the first visible landmark at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center. It can be seen from at least ten miles in every direction.