This is an announcement of a shortlist of sites for the UK’s spacebase, to be in operation in 2018. Previously, eight candidates had been announced, which has now been reduced to six.

Four of the sites are in Scotland, one in Wales and one in England. The spacebase is intended mainly for HTHL flights (horizontal-takeoff-horizontal-landing, ie rocketplanes).

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31711083

dv said:

This is an announcement of a shortlist of sites for the UK’s spacebase, to be in operation in 2018. Previously, eight candidates had been announced, which has now been reduced to six.

Four of the sites are in Scotland, one in Wales and one in England. The spacebase is intended mainly for HTHL flights (horizontal-takeoff-horizontal-landing, ie rocketplanes).

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31711083

The French use French Guiana in South America, which makes good sense because it is near the equator and on the East Coast. The equator gives extra oomph and the East Coast is to avoid descending rockets crashing into populated areas. The UK doesn’t have any suitable uninhabited areas. I suppose what they’re really planning is another airport rather than a space base.

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

This is an announcement of a shortlist of sites for the UK’s spacebase, to be in operation in 2018. Previously, eight candidates had been announced, which has now been reduced to six.

Four of the sites are in Scotland, one in Wales and one in England. The spacebase is intended mainly for HTHL flights (horizontal-takeoff-horizontal-landing, ie rocketplanes).

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31711083

The French use French Guiana in South America, which makes good sense because it is near the equator and on the East Coast. The equator gives extra oomph and the East Coast is to avoid descending rockets crashing into populated areas. The UK doesn’t have any suitable uninhabited areas. I suppose what they’re really planning is another airport rather than a space base.

Even for vehicles that are HTL capable, helicopters, VTOL planes, Osprey etc they still use a runway where they can to carry heavier loads and or to safe fuel.

AwesomeO said:

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

This is an announcement of a shortlist of sites for the UK’s spacebase, to be in operation in 2018. Previously, eight candidates had been announced, which has now been reduced to six.

Four of the sites are in Scotland, one in Wales and one in England. The spacebase is intended mainly for HTHL flights (horizontal-takeoff-horizontal-landing, ie rocketplanes).

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31711083

The French use French Guiana in South America, which makes good sense because it is near the equator and on the East Coast. The equator gives extra oomph and the East Coast is to avoid descending rockets crashing into populated areas. The UK doesn’t have any suitable uninhabited areas. I suppose what they’re really planning is another airport rather than a space base.

Even for vehicles that are HTL capable, helicopters, VTOL planes, Osprey etc they still use a runway where they can to carry heavier loads and or to safe fuel.

Nah they really are planning a space base, not another airport.

A lot of these nanosats are put into sun-synchronous or polar orbits, and there’s no advantage to being near the equator for those.