LONDON -- Plans for the UK's first spaceport have taken a big step forward.
A government revealed on Tuesday a shortlist of locations, with sites in England, Wales and Scotland under consideration.
Campbeltown, Glasgow Prestwick and Stornoway in Scotland all made the list, as well as Newquay in England and Llanbedr in Wales.
Politicians have ambitious plans to establish a spaceport by 2018 for commercial space flights from the UK.
It's envisaged that the spaceport will be a base for manned flights using reusable spacecraft, such as those being developed by Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace.
The successful site has to be an existing airport with a runway of over 3,000 metres that could accommodate segregated areas for spaceflights. It also needs to be located away from densely populated areas.
Work on the first UK spaceport began in 2012, after the Department for Transport and UK Space Agency asked the Civil Aviation Authority to review the operational environment and regulations to allow spaceplanes to operate.
The U.S. has several spaceports with proposals for more, while the European Space Agency uses one in French Guiana.