Kathryn Kusske Floyd and Tyler Welti published “Commercial Spaceports: A New Frontier Of Infrastructure Law” in Environmental Law Reporter. The following is an excerpt:
While a “spaceport” may sound like a concept mostly confined to science fiction, several commercial spaceports are in operation in the United States and abroad, and more are being developed. As the name suggests, spaceports, or commercial space launch sites, are used to conduct launch and reentry operations to and from space, such as launching satellites into orbit or sending space tourists to the edge of space and back. A commercial space launch site can be operated by a nonfederal entity, such as a business, state or local government, or public-private partnership, and offers its infrastructure and related services to private space companies or federal agencies seeking to conduct launch operations.