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Spaceport

A licensed site from which rockets launch, including the pads, the ranges that must be kept clear, and the regulatory permission to fly.

Why it matters

Geography decides more than it appears to. Launching eastward near the equator borrows the most speed from the Earth's rotation, while high-latitude sites are better placed for polar and sun-synchronous orbits. The harder constraint is what lies downrange: a rocket must be able to fail without dropping debris on anyone, which is why spaceports sit on coastlines and deserts. Range availability, not vehicle readiness, is often what sets a launch date.

In our data

The 350 missions in our tracker are spread across a small number of sites worldwide, and the concentration mirrors the provider concentration: the handful of operators flying most often also occupy the busiest ranges, which is part of why scheduling conflicts show up as slipped dates in our manifest.

Where we use it

Not to be confused with

A launch pad, which is one structure within a spaceport, and a test site, where engines and stages are fired without going anywhere.