The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was commissioned to research and produce the 2014 Government Spaceplan Review of commercial spaceplane certification and operations. In addition to identifying key criteria for UK spaceports, and identifying potential locations based on these, the Spaceplane Review also set out the potential for horizontal spaceplane operations from the UK and provided prospective businesses with the detailed groundwork for making commercial spaceflight operations in the UK a reality. This work is now providing the basis for the legislative measures that will be brought forward in the Modern Transport Bill to enable a broad commercial space market to develop in the UK. The Department for Transport contributed approximately £223,000 to this Review and the CAA’s subsequent work. The Department also incurred estimated costs of £86,000 in support of the 2014 Spaceplane Review and consulting on the review’s key criteria and conclusions on spaceport location, the outcome of which was published in March 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/spaceport-locations-and-criteria.

During the Queen’s Speech Transport debate on 19 May, the Secretary of State noted that a range of viable spaceport options had been put forward and that the Department supported those bids. The Secretary of State also set out that the Modern Transport Bill will create the right framework for the market to select what the best location for a UK spaceport will be. The Government’s ambition is that the United Kingdom’s space economy should account for 10% of the global space economy by 2030 - worth some £40 billion per year. In support of this innovative sector, the Department, working with the Civil Aviation Authority, UK Space Agency and interested businesses, has allocated nearly £3.3m within this Parliament to legislate and establish a safe regulatory framework to enable commercial spaceflight in the UK.