A new space race will be launched in Britain this week, with the locations of two commercial spaceports set to be announced.
It is understood that one of the ports will be in Newquay, Cornwall, with the second likely to be in northern Scotland. The announcement will be made at the Farnborough air show, which starts tomorrow.
The two spaceports will be given access to a £50m government space fund and will compete to launch the first satellite from British soil, which could come as soon as 2021. The last satellite launched by Britain was Prospero, in 1971, although that was sent on a Black Arrow rocket from Woomera, South Australia.
The UK Space Agency said it had received 26 proposals for potential spaceport locations.