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A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word spaceport—and even more so cosmodrome—has traditionally referred to sites capable of launching spacecraft into Earth's orbit or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch sites for sub-orbital spaceflights are also sometimes called spaceports, especially as new and proposed facilities for suborbital commercial spaceflight are often branded as "spaceports". and proposed future lunar bases are also sometimes referred to as spaceports, particularly when envisioned as nodes for further interplanetary travel.
Spaceports are evolving beyond traditional government-run complexes into multi-functional aerospace hubs, increasingly driven by private companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. A prominent example is SpaceX Starbase, a private spaceport operated by SpaceX in Boca Chica, Texas. Starbase serves as the primary development and launch site for SpaceX Starship, a fully reusable spacecraft designed for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The facility includes rocket production, launch, and landing infrastructure, and in May 2025, it was officially incorporated as a municipality in Texas—marking the first time a spaceport has become its own city. Starbase is now both a spaceport and a small residential and industrial community, primarily supporting SpaceX operations.
The term rocket launch site refers more broadly to any facility from which rockets are launched. Such facilities typically include one or more , often surrounded by a safety buffer called a rocket range or missile range, which includes the area rockets are expected to fly over and where components may land. These sites may also include to monitor launch progress.Merritt Island Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network station.
Major spaceports often feature multiple launch complexes, adapted for different launch vehicle types. For rockets using liquid propellants, storage and sometimes production facilities are necessary, while solid-propellant operations often include on-site processing. Some spaceports also incorporate to support CTOL (HTHL) or horizontal takeoff and vertical landing (HTVL) vehicles.
In January 2025, traffic congestion was reported at U.S. rocket-launch sites due to the rising number of launches, primarily from companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. Three sites in Florida and California currently handle most U.S. rocket launches.
The world's first spaceport for orbital and human launches, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan, started as a Soviet military rocket range in 1955. It achieved the first orbital flight (Sputnik 1) in October 1957. The exact location of the cosmodrome was initially held secret. Guesses to its location were misdirected by a name in common with a mining town 320 km away. The position became known in 1957 outside the Soviet Union only after U-2 planes had identified the site by following railway lines in the Kazakh SSR, although Soviet authorities did not confirm the location for decades.
The Baikonur Cosmodrome achieved the first launch of a human into space (Yuri Gagarin) in 1961. The launch complex used, Site 1, has reached a special symbolic significance and is commonly called Gagarin's Start. Baikonur was the primary Soviet cosmodrome, and is still frequently used by Russia under a lease arrangement with Kazakhstan.
In response to the early Soviet successes, the United States built up a major spaceport complex at Cape Canaveral in Florida. A large number of uncrewed flights, as well as the early human flights, were carried out at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. For the Apollo programme, an adjacent spaceport, Kennedy Space Center, was constructed, and achieved the first crewed mission to the lunar surface (Apollo 11) in July 1969. It was the base for all Space Shuttle launches and most of their runway landings. For details on the launch complexes of the two spaceports, see List of Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island launch sites.
The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, is France's spaceport, with satellite launches that benefit from the location 5 degrees north of the equator.
In October 2003 the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center achieved the first Chinese human spaceflight.
Breaking with tradition, in June 2004 on a runway at Mojave Air and Space Port, California, a human was for the first time launched to space in a privately funded, suborbital spaceflight, that was intended to pave the way for future commercial spaceflights. The spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, was launched by a carrier airplane taking off horizontally.
At Cape Canaveral, SpaceX in 2015 made the first successful landing and recovery of a first stage used in a vertical satellite launch.
In principle, advantages of high altitude launch are reduced vertical distance to travel and a thinner atmosphere for the rocket to penetrate. However, altitude of the launch site is not a driving factor in spaceport placement because most of the delta-v for a launch is spent on achieving the required horizontal orbital speed. The small gain from a few kilometers of extra altitude does not usually off-set the logistical costs of ground transport in mountainous terrain.
Many spaceports have been placed at existing military installations, such as intercontinental ballistic missile ranges, which are not always physically ideal sites for launch.
A rocket launch site is built as far as possible away from major population centers in order to not inconvenience their inhabitants with noise pollution and other undesired industrial activity, as well as mitigate risk to bystanders should a rocket experience a catastrophic failure. In many cases a launch site is built close to major bodies of water to ensure that no components are shed over populated areas, be it by staging or an in-flight failure. Typically a spaceport site is large enough that, should a vehicle explode, it will not endanger human lives or adjacent launch pads.
Planned sites of spaceports for sub-orbital tourist spaceflight often make use of existing ground infrastructure, including runways. The nature of the local view from altitude is also a factor to consider.
The establishment of spaceports for tourist trips raises legal issues, which are only beginning to be addressed. For example, in Virginia, spaceflight companies are not liable for any accidents in spaceflight, as long as such a warning is displayed to the passengers.
| Baikonur Cosmodrome | Site 1 | Vostok | Vostok 1–6 | 6 orbital | 1961–1963 |
| Site 1 | Voskhod | Voskhod 1–2 | 2 orbital | 1964–1965 | |
| Site 1, 31 | Soyuz, Soyuz-U | Soyuz 1–40 † | 37 orbital | 1967–1981 | |
| Site 1, 31 | Soyuz | Soyuz 18a | 1 sub-orb | 1975 | |
| Site 1, 31 | Soyuz-U, Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz-T 2–15 | 14 orbital | 1980–1986 | |
| Site 1 | Soyuz-U, Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz-TM 2–34 | 33 orbital | 1987–2002 | |
| Site 1 | Soyuz-FG | Soyuz-TMA 1–22 | 22 orbital | 2002–2011 | |
| Site 1, 31 | Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-M 1–20 | 20 orbital | 2010–2016 | |
| Site 1, 31 | Soyuz-FG | Soyuz MS 1–9, 11–13, 15 | 13 orbital | 2016–2019 | |
| Site 1, 31 | Soyuz-2 | Soyuz MS 16–22, 24 | 8 orbital | 2020– | |
| Cape Canaveral Space Force Station | LC-5 | Redstone | Project Mercury 3–4 | 2 sub-orb | 1961 |
| LC-14 | Atlas | Project Mercury 6–9 | 4 orbital | 1962–1963 | |
| LC-19 | Titan II | Project Gemini 3–12 | 10 orbital | 1965–1966 | |
| LC-34 | Saturn IB | Apollo Program 7 | 1 orbital | 1968 | |
| LC-41 | Atlas V | Boeing Starliner | 1 orbital | 2024– | |
| LC-40 | Falcon 9 | Crew Dragon | 1 orbital | 2024- | |
| Kennedy Space Center | LC-39 | Saturn V | Apollo Program 8–17 | 10 moon/orb | 1968–1972 |
| Saturn IB | Skylab 2–4, Apollo–Soyuz | 4 orbital | 1973–1975 | ||
| Space Shuttle | STS 1-135‡ | 134 orbital | 1981–2011 | ||
| Falcon 9 | Crew Dragon | 11 orbital | 2020– | ||
| Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center | Area 4 | Long March 2F | Shenzhou 5–7, 9–17 | 12 orbital | 2003– |
| Corn Ranch | Launch Site One | New Shepard | New Shepard | 6 sub-orb | 2021– |
| Baikonur Cosmodrome | Kazakhstan | 1957– | R-7/Soyuz, Kosmos, Proton, Tsyklon, Zenit, Energia, Dnepr, N1, Rokot, Strela | ||
| Cape Canaveral Space Force Station | United States | 1958– | Delta, Scout, Atlas, Titan, Saturn, Athena, Falcon 9, Minotaur IV, Vanguard, Juno I, Thor | ||
| Vandenberg Space Force Base | United States | 1959– | Delta, Scout, Atlas, Titan, Taurus, Athena, Minotaur, Falcon 9, Thor, Firefly Alpha | ||
| Wallops Flight Facility | United States | 1961–1985 | Scout | 6+13 | |
| Kapustin Yar | Russia | 1962–2008 | Kosmos | ||
| CIEES | French Algeria | 1965–1967 | Diamant A (France) | Diamant | |
| Plesetsk Cosmodrome | Russia | 1966– | R-7/Soyuz, Kosmos, Tsyklon-3, Rokot, Angara, Start | ||
| Broglio Space Centre | Kenya | 1967–1988 | Scout (ASI and Sapienza, Italy) | Broglio | |
| Kennedy Space Center | United States | 1967– | 17 Saturn, 135 Space Shuttle, 63 Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, 1 SLS | Saturn, Space Shuttle, F9 | |
| Woomera Prohibited Area | Australia | 1967, 1971 | Redstone (WRESAT), Black Arrow (UK Prospero X-3), Europa | WRESAT, X-3 | |
| Uchinoura Space Center | Japan | 1970– | 27 Mu, 3 Epsilon, 1 SS-520-5 | M, ε, S | |
| Guiana Space Centre | French Guiana | 1970– | 7 Diamant, 227 Ariane, 16 Soyuz-2, 11 Vega | see 4 rockets | |
| Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center | China | 1970– | 2 LM1, 3 LM2A, 20 LM2C, 36 LM2D, 13 LM2F, 3 LM4B, 5 LM4C, 3 LM11 | See 8 rockets | |
| Tanegashima Space Center | Japan | 1975– | 6 N-I, 8 N-II, 9 H-I, 6 H-II, 50 H-IIA, 9 H-IIB, 5 H3 | see 6 rockets | |
| Satish Dhawan Space Centre | India | 1979– | 4 SLV, 4 ASLV, 60 PSLV, 16GSLV, 7 LVM3, 2 SSLV | List SDSC | |
| Xichang Satellite Launch Center | China | 1984– | Long March: 6 LM2C, 5 LM2E, 11 LM3, 25 LM3A, 42 LM3B, 15 LM3C | See 6 rockets | |
| Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center | China | 1988– | Long March: 16 LM2C, 2 LM2D, 2 LM4A, 25 LM4B, 15 LM4C, 2 LM6 | See 6 rockets | |
| Palmachim Airbase | Israel | 1988– | Shavit | Shavit | |
| Various airport runways ( Balls 8, Stargazer) | Various | 1990– | Pegasus | Pegasus | |
| Svobodny Cosmodrome | Russia | 1997–2006 | Start-1 | ||
| Barents Sea | 1998, 2006 | Shtil' (Russia), Volna | Shtil' | ||
| Odyssey mobile platform | Pacific Ocean | 1999–2014 | Zenit-3SL (Sea Launch) | Sea Launch | |
| Pacific Spaceport Complex Kodiak Readies for Quick Launch, Aviation Week, April 2010, accessed 26 April 2010. "Alaska's remote Kodiak Launch Complex is state-of-the-art, has a perfect mission record, and will soon be able to launch a satellite-carrying rocket within 24 hours of mission go-ahead." | United States | 2001– | 1 Athena, 2 Minotaur IV | Kodiak | |
| Yasny Cosmodrome | Russia | 2006– | Dnepr | Dnepr | |
| Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport | United States | 2006– | 5 Minotaur I, 6 Antares, 1 Minotaur V | MARS | |
| Omelek, Kwajalein Atoll | Marshall Islands | 2008–2009 | 5 Falcon 1 (US) | Falcon 1 | |
| Semnan Space Center | Iran | 2009– | Safir, Simorgh, Zuljanah | Safir | |
| Sohae Satellite Launching Station | North Korea | 2012– | Unha | K3-U2 | |
| Naro Space Center | South Korea | 2013– | Naro-1, Nuri | Naro-1, Nuri | |
| Vostochny Cosmodrome | Russia | 2016– | 8 Soyuz-2 | Vostochny | |
| Wenchang Satellite Launch Center | China | 2016– | Long March: 9 LM5, 12 LM7, 2 LM8 | See 3 rockets | |
| Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 | New Zealand | 2018– | 21 Electron | Electron (rocket) | |
| Yellow sea, East China sea | 2019– | 4 Long March 11, 1 SD3, 1 | See 3 rockets | ||
| Shahroud Space Center | Iran | 2020– | 3 Qased, 4 Qaem 100 |
| Edwards Air Force Base | B-52 | X-15 | 2 | 1963 |
| Mojave Air and Space Port | White Knight | SpaceShipOne | 3 | 2004 |
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