US spaceports: features and photos

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Space flights are becoming easier and more accessible every day. For those who are ready to shell out fabulous sums for a few short minutes spent outside the atmosphere, the United States Federal Aviation Administration has released a handy map that shows all the US spaceports. The list of active federal sites has been supplemented with information about private facilities intended for launching spacecraft.

What are spaceports for?

Launch pads are used to launch orbital or suborbital vehicles into space. They provide the integration of launch components, provide fuel, maintain aircraft and install payloads on them. Spaceports provide an opportunity to make vertical and horizontal takeoff and landing. From the launch site, the vehicle moves through an area called the launch zone, which is usually equipped with tracking and telemetry equipment. It is necessary for monitoringvehicle until it is successfully launched into orbit or returned to Earth. These systems can also be used to find reusable steps.

The United States Federal Aviation and Commercial Space Administration licenses the country's private launch pads.

How many spaceports are there in the US?

As of the end of 2015, there were 19 active launch sites in the United States, of which 8 are federal, 9 are commercial, operated by government agencies in partnership with private enterprises, and one is owned by a university. Of these, 4 are designed for launches into low Earth orbit, 9 are used only for suborbital launches and 5 are universal.

In addition, there are 3 unlicensed sites from which licensed or authorized vehicles can be launched. Since the companies that own these spaceports use rockets of their own production, they are not required to obtain permission for the launch site. These include:

• Odyssey platform of the Sea Launch program using Zenit 3SL missiles;
• SpaceX's McGregor spaceport in Texas, where the Falcon 9R is being tested;
• Blue Origin site near Van Horn, Texas.

US spaceports that currently exist can be divided into three large groups. They are located on the Pacific coast, in the south-southwest, as well as onthe central and southern Atlantic coasts of the country.

Pacific Group

US spaceports in the Pacific are located on two launch pads. The first of these is the Sea Launch platform, which was originally a joint Norwegian-Russian-Ukrainian-American platform. After the bankruptcy of 2009, the private rocket and space corporation Energia from Russia became its main owner. The US has been using the platform for some time to launch commercial satellites.

The second, the Reagan Test Site, is located in the Marshall Islands. The launch site is located on the Kwajalein and Aur atolls, as well as Wake Island. It is used as a test site for ballistic missiles, missile defense systems, space and meteorological research programs, and for tracking satellites. Omelek Island hosts a commercial spaceport for SpaceX.

Alaska Launch Complexes

Alaska also has US spaceports. The Kodiak Launch Complex, which specializes in launching satellites into polar orbit, and the Poker Flat research site, owned by the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, launch rockets with scientific equipment to take measurements in the upper atmosphere.

Kodiak Launch Complex

Kodiak, with an area of 1500 hectares, is the only high-latitude launch complex in the United States. At the 54th latitude on Kodiak Island, Narrow is located - the cape of the US spaceport, which specializes inpolar launches used to launch satellites into orbit. The best-of-breed facility includes two sites (one for orbital flights and one for suborbital flights), a 17-story building for rocket assembly, and a clean room for satellite preparation. The complex is under construction of the third stage, which will allow for incredibly fast launches - no more than 24 hours will pass from delivery to launch.

California launch pads

In addition to the two US Air Force Bases Vandenberg and Edwards, which are also used for experimental launches, there are two spaceports in California, California and Mojave. And they are really impressive! In 2004, the first successful privately funded space launch of SpaceShipOne took place from the Mojave. The California Space Agency was also based in California, which had practically no power and for this reason ceased to exist.

Spaceport California

Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, has operated since 1999 the oldest licensed commercial spaceport in the US, named Spaceport California. Moreover, it is the only fully commercialized facility in the country - it operates without government funding. The main launch site is the 8th Space Launch Complex or SLC-8. It is capable of providing both polar and ballistic trajectories using small Minotaur-class boosters.

Mojave Airspaceport

Constructed from a naval airfield and World War II artillery range, the Mojave Airspaceport was one of the first test sites for private spacecraft. Starting with a rocket program in the early 1990s, it has become home to some of the biggest names in commercial suborbital and orbital flight history, including SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X award in 2004, XCOR Aerospace, Masten Space Systems and Orbital Science Corp.

South-Southwest

Here is every US state with a spaceport. New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma all have their launch pads, with New Mexico dominating. Enchanting Land (the state's official nickname) is home to Spaceport America, which occasionally sends tourists into space.

Spaceport America

Jordana Del Muerto Desert, New Mexico is home to US Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial launch pad and base for private aerospace companies Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, UP Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace. Certified by the LEED system, the facility covers about 62 thousand square meters. m and includes two double-height hangars with an area of 4400 sq. m and the mission control center. The spaceport can be reached by charter from the nearby town of Trut-or-Consicuences.

White Sands Missile Range tests all kinds of large and explosive things, and sometimes launches them into near space. It also hosted the world's firstnuclear test site. But it's not a very interesting place.

Oklahoma Spaceport

Located in the middle of the Oklahoma wasteland, the spaceport has one of the longest runways in North America (4115m). Combined with an empty, no-flying sky, it is the first in the US to be free of military and flight restrictions, ideal for commercial use of horizontal takeoff and landing vehicles. Armadillo Aerospace is also based here, although its prototype lunar spacecraft is designed for VTOL only. Among other things, there is even a 9-hole golf course.

Texas spaceports

In Texas is the launch pad of the private space enterprise of the head and founder of Amazon, multibillionaire Jeff Bezos Blue Origin. Now it is a test spaceport, but perhaps in the future it will become a suitable place for tourist trips to and from space.

And in McGregor, SpaceX built a launch pad to test the Merlin 1D engine, Falcon 9 and Grasshopper rockets.

Central and South Atlantic coast

Virginia has two launch sites, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) and NASA's Wallops Island launch site. MARS sends ships into space thanks to the "Zero Gravity - Zero Taxes" tax credit. NASA rockets are launched on Wallops. For example, on September 6, 2013, a probe flew from here tostudies of the lunar atmosphere and environment - for the first time outside of Florida, where the main US spaceport is located.

Located on the east coast of Virginia, the facility was built in 1945 for aerodynamic testing and as an orbital launch facility. Over 16,000 rockets have since been launched from Wallops, including early prototypes of Project Mercury and LADEE.

Under the leadership of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, MARS operates two launch sites: Pad 0A, which is licensed by the FAA to deliver payloads of up to 5 tons to lower Earth orbit, and Pad 0B, which allows launching up to 3.8 tons of payload, which is more suitable for small vehicles such as the Minotaur IV or the Minuteman. In addition to traditional solid-propellant rockets, it can launch liquid-fuel and hybrid rockets.

The first launch of the autonomous cargo logistics spacecraft Cygnus of Orbital Sciences aboard its Antares launch vehicle was carried out from the MARS cosmodrome. Cygnus, Elon Musk's Dragon Capsule competitor, successfully took off on September 18, 2013. Four days later, it reached the ISS, docked, and delivered 980 kg of consumables.

Cape Canaveral

The main US spaceport is located in the state of Florida. From here, the launch and coordination of the Apollo program was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. and under the Space Shuttle program in the 1980s–2000s. "Space Coast" includes the Space CenterNASA JFK, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Spaceport.

After the completion of the shuttle program, the Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center were opened to commercial ventures. Together, these facilities have three active launch pads and two active runways for horizontal launches between them.

Launch Complexes 46 and 20 are the primary launch platforms at Cape Canaveral. The first of these is designed to accommodate Lockheed Athena or Taurus medium-class missiles, as well as Trident II and Minuteman ballistic missiles. The second complex was built to serve small suborbital launch systems LiteStar, Terrier, Orion and ASAS.

Cecil Field Spaceport

In 2010, the US Federal Aviation Administration approved the creation of Jacksonville's Cecil Field spaceport on the site of the decommissioned Naval Aviation Base of the same name. The launch pad was licensed in 2010 and already has the necessary facilities to support horizontally launched renewable vehicles. The spaceport has 3800, 2400 and 1200 m long runways, and additional taxiways and spaceport facilities are being developed. They should be completed by the end of the decade.

Today space travel is in transition. Research and military testing continues to dominate, although commercial satellite launches are beginning to take up an increasing portion of today's missile missions.space industry. Space tourism from the likes of Virgin Galactic and possibly Blue Origin promises a new future, albeit at a price that few can currently afford.

New US spaceports and programs like Space X show how much more room there is for innovation.