Editing Spaceport (section)

==History==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880, Peenemünde, Start einer V2.jpg|thumb|[[Peenemünde]], Germany, where the [[V-2 rocket|V-2]], the first rocket to reach space in June 1944, was launched]]
The first [[rocket]]s to reach space were [[V-2 rocket]]s launched from [[Peenemünde]], [[Germany]] in 1944 during [[World War II]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Space and astronomy: decade by decade |first=Marianne J. |last=Dyson |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8160-5536-4 |page=95}}</ref> After the war, 70 complete V-2 rockets were brought to [[White Sands Missile Range|White Sands]] for test launches, with 47 of them reaching altitudes between 100&nbsp;km and 213&nbsp;km.<ref>Ernst Stuhlinger, Enabling technology for space transportation (The Century of Space Science, page 66, Kluwer, {{ISBN|0-7923-7196-8}})</ref>

The world's first spaceport for orbital and human launches, the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]] in southern [[Kazakhstan]], started as a Soviet military rocket range in 1955. It achieved the first orbital flight ([[Sputnik 1]]) in October 1957.  The exact location of the cosmodrome was initially held secret. Guesses to its location were misdirected by a name in common with a mining town 320&nbsp;km away. The position became known in 1957 outside the Soviet Union only after [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] planes had identified the site by following railway lines in the [[Kazakh SSR]], although Soviet authorities did not confirm the location for decades.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur.html|title=Baikonur Cosmodrome (NIIP-5/GIK-5)|website=www.russianspaceweb.com|access-date=24 December 2010|archive-date=8 February 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030208011330/http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Baikonur Cosmodrome achieved the first launch of a human into space ([[Yuri Gagarin]]) in 1961. The launch complex used, Site 1, has reached a special symbolic significance and is commonly called [[Gagarin's Start]]. Baikonur was the primary Soviet cosmodrome, and is still frequently used by Russia under a lease arrangement with Kazakhstan.

In response to the early Soviet successes, the United States built up a major spaceport complex at Cape Canaveral in Florida. A large number of uncrewed flights, as well as the early human flights, were carried out at [[Cape Canaveral Space Force Station]]. For the Apollo programme, an adjacent spaceport, [[Kennedy Space Center]], was constructed, and achieved the first crewed mission to the lunar surface ([[Apollo 11]]) in July 1969. It was the base for all [[Space Shuttle]] launches and most of their runway landings. For details on the launch complexes of the two spaceports, see [[List of Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island launch sites]].

The [[Guiana Space Centre]] in Kourou, French Guiana, is France's spaceport, with satellite launches that benefit from the location 5 degrees north of the equator.

In October 2003 the [[Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center]] achieved the first Chinese human spaceflight.

Breaking with tradition, in June 2004 on a runway at [[Mojave Air and Space Port]], California, a human was for the first time launched to space in a [[Private spaceflight|privately]] funded, suborbital spaceflight, that was intended to pave the way for future commercial spaceflights. The spacecraft, [[SpaceShipOne]], was launched by a carrier airplane taking off horizontally.

At Cape Canaveral, [[SpaceX]] in 2015 made the first successful landing and recovery of a first stage used in a vertical satellite launch.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/21/10640306/spacex-elon-musk-rocket-landing-success |title=SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket after launching it to space |work=[[The Verge]] |first=Loren |last=Grush |date=December 21, 2015 |access-date=April 9, 2016 |archive-date=28 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628014841/https://www.theverge.com/2015/12/21/10640306/spacex-elon-musk-rocket-landing-success |url-status=live }}</ref>