Tag: Spaceports
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DOT Forms SPACE Task Force, but Authority to Cut Launch Approval Times Remains Unclear
The US Department of Transportation established the Space Policy Administration, Coordination, and Execution Task Force on September 9 to accelerate commercial launch approvals, expand spaceport capacity and improve launch integration with the national airspace system. However, DOT did not announce approval-time targets, implementation deadlines or new licensing authority, leaving unresolved whether the group can remove…
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Isar Aerospace Makes History With First Orbital Launch From Western Europe
Isar Aerospace became the first company to launch a rocket into orbit from Western European soil on September 5, 2026, when its Spectrum vehicle lifted off from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway and successfully deployed five CubeSats. The milestone came on only the German company’s second flight, following a failed debut in March 2025 and…
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Hainan Could Become the Hub of China’s Commercial Space Future
The global launch industry is entering a new phase, one defined less by whether rockets can reach orbit and more by how quickly launch capacity can scale. Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim recently pointed to a widening imbalance between the number of satellites waiting to fly and the amount of launch capacity available to carry…
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SpaceX Commits $100 Billion to Build Starbase Louisiana, Expanding Starship Launch Capacity
SpaceX has announced plans to invest approximately $100 billion in the construction of Starbase Louisiana, a massive new Starship launch complex on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast that would become the company’s largest spaceflight operations center and one of the most ambitious commercial space infrastructure projects ever proposed. The development is intended to support thousands of Starship…
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Trump Sets 1,000-Plus Annual Launch Target as White House Rewrites U.S. Space Transportation Policy
The White House is targeting more than 1,000 space launches and reentries from U.S. soil every year by 2030 under a new national space transportation policy signed by President Donald Trump on Aug. 20, 2026. The National Security Presidential Memorandum replaces the previous National Space Transportation Policy issued in 2013 and establishes a commercial-first framework…
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Virgin Galactic begins moving space effort from California to New Mexico spaceport
Spaceport America is becoming the true base of operations for Virgin Galactic. (Virgin Galactic Photo) After two successful crewed test flights to a 50-mile-high space milestone, Virgin Galactic says it’s shifting its operations from California to New Mexico’s Spaceport America — lock, stock and spaceship. Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, made the announcement in…
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Spaceport Colorado wins FAA license
News Brief: Colorado’s Front Range Airport is getting a new name — the Colorado Air and Space Port — thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of a spaceport license. The facility, six miles southeast of Denver International Airport in Adams County, won’t be used for vertical rocket launches. Instead, it’s approved for horizontal takeoff-and-launch operations…
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British government selects Scotland’s Sutherland site to be prime U.K. spaceport
Artwork shows the spaceport at Scotland’s Sutherland site. (HIE / Courtesy of Perfect Circle PV) The British government has selected a spot in Sutherland, on the A’Mhoine Peninsula in the Scottish Highlands, as the site of the country’s first vertical-launch spaceport. Three other sites will receive boosts for horizontal air-launch operations. In a news release…