Germany mulls domestic spaceport

German industry wants the government to invest more in space research and development. That includes building a domestic spaceport.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has signaled that the government will consider building a space launch center after German industries demanded more to investment in space research and development.

"Space travel excites many people and creates thousands of jobs. We are leaders in satellite technology. Therefore, I will examine the suggestion of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) for a spaceport," he told the mass-circulation Bild.

German industry has called for the space innovation budget to more than double from €285 million ($318 million) to a level on par with France at more than €700 million.

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Spin-offs - Space technology in daily life

According to BDI, German is ranked eighth in the world for space investments, even though it has the fourth largest economy in the world.

"The strength of Germany as a high-tech location is not reflected in the state of space investment," BDI head Dieter Kempf said at a space congress in Berlin last week.

A domestic spaceport would allow Germany to launch satellites and participate in the commercialization of space, according to BDI.

Gateways to space

A success!

On Thursday, Russia launched a Soyuz rocket from its new Vostochny spaceport, located deep in Siberia.
Gateways to space

Four years of construction

Russia had long been considering the construction a new spaceport. Those plans were passed in 2007, with construction starting in 2012. This is what the building site looked like last August.
Gateways to space

Lift-off

This is Vostochny's launch pad. At the moment, only Soyuz rockets can launch from here. This will change in 2023, when manned Angara rockets will be cleared for takeoff.
Gateways to space

Baikonur in Kazakhstan

For the past six decades, Russia launched most of its rockets from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia has been paying an annual fee of $117 million (104 million euros) for the use of Baikonur.
Gateways to space

Guiana Space Centre in Kourou

The European Space Agency (ESA) has its own spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana, a region on the northeast coast of South America that belongs to the European Union. Kourou is very close to the equator.
Gateways to space

Cape Canaveral

The US Air Force launches its rockets from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Closeby is the Kennedy Space Center, NASA's spaceport.
Gateways to space

Tanegashima in Japan

The Japanese space agency (JAXA) has a spaceport with a rather picturesque location, secluded on the island of Tanegashima.
Gateways to space

Jiuquan in China

Founded in 1958, Jiuquan is China's oldest and biggest spaceport. It is located near the city of Jiuquan in Gansu Province in Inner Mongolia. China has three spaceports in total.
Gateways to space

A look inside

And this is what the big halls at spaceports look like from inside. This is the Chinese spaceport Jiuquan. We see here a spacecraft being loaded onto a rocket.

Author: Brigitte Osterath