UK announces plans for two spaceports that could see launches by 2021

An artist's impression of the Sutherland spaceport

An artist’s impression of the Sutherland spaceport

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You wait decades for a spaceport and then two come along at once. That was the scene at the Farnborough International Airshow today, where the UK Space Agency revealed plans to fund the establishment of a rocket launchpad on the bleak, boggy A’Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland on Scotland’s northern coast.

In addition, the UKSA is also backing plans to fly satellite-launching rockets strapped to aircraft taking off from a former Royal Air Force base near Newquay, in the west of England.

The government says it hopes to …