th

This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first
serious article on commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a
full page article in The Sun on 15 November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL SPACEPORT TO A

MODERN SMALL DEVELOPING COUNTRY AND SPACE CITY

Norul Ridzuan Zakaria(1), Dato Nasri Nasron(2)

(1)
Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ikam290200@hotmail.com
(2)
Setegap Ventures Resources Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, nasri@svcorporation.net

ABSTRACT Such commercial spaceports will be significant to

The major spaceflight ground facilities or spaceports in
the United States of America and Russia were built
during the era of space race in the 60s and 70s driven not
only by economy and technology but also mainly by
contemporary politics. The similar facilities built in
Brazil, China and India was also driven by the
combination of contemporary economy, technology and
politics before the era of space tourism.
For a modern small developing country, building a
spaceport as those built in the USA, Russia, Brazil, China
and India is not only too expensive, but also unsuitable
and impractical during today’s era of space tourism,
because space tourism has changed the view and
understanding of both the government and public towards
spaceflight.
modern small developing countries to enable the
countries to enjoy the benefits of spaceflight operation
similar to that enjoyed by countries that had built their
spaceports during the space race era and before the space
tourism era. Development of such spaceport in a modern
small developing country can also be economically
justified.
This commercial suborbital spaceflight facility or
spaceport will provide services to suborbital space
tourism, commercial zero-gravity missions, researches
and education and become catalysts to commercial land
and property development and also other economic and
commercial development. All these commercial space
and non-space activities and developments resulting from
the operation of commercial suborbital spaceports can be
territorially grouped together and known as space city.

Space tourism has made popular the idea of commercial
spaceflight and commercial spaceport. These commercial
factors of space tourism are transforming spaceflight
from a politically driven to economically driven activity.
Both the government and public of today understand that
spaceflight is now available commercially to everybody,
not only limited to government sponsored astronauts as a
decade ago.
Being commercial is being affordable economically, and
the popularity of space tourism as a form of commercial
spaceflight has created the opportunity for modern small
developing countries to justify the idea of developing
commercial spaceports, as the spaceports are suppose to
be economically driven and will promote various
industries directly and indirectly related to it.
During the era of commercial orbital spaceflight in the
future, space tourism will reach maturity when there will
be orbital spaceflights transporting space tourists to
hotels in orbit. At this stage, commercial spaceports will
be a major economic generator and catalyst. However,
even during the early stage of space tourism or during the
era of commercial suborbital spaceflight, a commercial
spaceport can also be an economic generator and catalyst.
1. SPACEPORTS RESULTING FROM SPACE
RACE
Space race was the competition in the development of
space infrastructures between the United States of
America (USA) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) in the 60s and 70s to dominate space travel and
emerge as the most powerful government in the world.
The powerhouse behind the race in both governments
was a combination of contemporary technology,
economy and politics.
The USA and USSR governments were able to compete
in the space race because both had obtained the required
rocket technology from Germany after World War II, and
the USA particularly has the economic capability to do
so, but the most important was that both governments
were able to politically justify their very huge spending
of money, human resources and time in the race, and this
political justification was more acceptable and important
than the economic justification during that time.
What are now called Kennedy Space Center in the USA
and Baikonur Cosmodrome in the USSR are the most
significant and physically visible results of the space
race. Without the space race and the eagerness of the
American and USSR governments to dominate the world

1

This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.
by being the leader in space travel and technology, both
Kennedy Space Center and Baikonur Cosmodrome may
not be as huge and costly as they are today. Both
spaceports are so huge territorially and so costly
economically that they are not possible to be built with
today’s economic and political scenarios.
Another reason for the spaceports to be so huge and
costly was that the space launch vehicles which were
launched from the spaceports were totally expendable
launch vehicles and evolved from intercontinental
ballistic missiles. Such launch vehicles were not designed
to be cost-effective in their development and operation
and so did their spaceports.
These spaceports which were understood to be necessary
to compete in the space race cannot be built anymore
today because there is no more space race and
particularly for a modern developing country, such
spending of huge amount of money cannot be justified
economically.
2. SPACEPORTS DEVELOPED BEFORE THE
ERA OF SPACE TOURISM
The space race did result in the establishment of the USA
and USSR as the 2 most advanced countries in space
travel and technology and powerful countries in the
world. This has encouraged other countries with the
agenda of being regional powers to develop and operate
similar spaceports. Among these counties were Brazil,
China and India.
Even though these 3 regional powers did not have the
might of economy like that of the USA or technology as
that of USSR, they did have politically strong enough
regional agendas to develop such spaceports. During that
time, developing such space travel facilities were the
right thing to do for the 3 countries.
Like the spaceports in the USA and USSR developed
during the space race, spaceports developed in Brazil,
China and India were for the operation of expendable
launch vehicles, which were not economic and not meant
to be commercial.
Another major spaceport developed before the era of
space tourism which also operates expendable launch
vehicles is the spaceport at French Guiana now operated
by European Space Agency. However, with the
advancing technology, the expendable launch vehicles
have become more efficient even though still not
economic.
A requirement for a spaceport for expendable launch
vehicles is that the spaceport needs to have a vast area for
2
th
the safe dumping of the expendable components of its
launch vehicles. Since 80% of the launch vehicles are
dumped as the expendable components, a safe and vast
dumping area is the most important factor in determining
the site of the spaceport.
These spaceports usually are located on the east coast of
a continent so that the expendable components of the
launch vehicles can be dumped into the ocean on its east.
The components fall towards the east because the
direction and momentum of Earth rotation is towards the
east. For a spaceport not located on the east coast of a
continent, the safe dumping area on its east is a vast
empty dessert or tundra.
These spaceports are not only very costly to be developed
and operated, but also cannot be built at locations without
a safe and vast dumping area.
3. COMMERCIAL SPACEPORTS RESULTING
FROM SPACE TOURISM
The era of space tourism begins on June 2004 when
SpaceShipOne, a piloted prototype of a suborbital
tourism spaceplane had successfully flown to reach 80km
from sea level and landed safely. Now, a fleet of
commercial suborbital tourism spaceplanes are being
built based on the prototype and will start carrying space
tourists very soon. Several other prototypes of suborbital
tourism spaceplane are also being developed around the
world.
In a decade or more, orbital tourism spaceplanes will be
flown to take space tourists to orbit. Later, there will be
orbital spaceplanes transferring space tourists to hotels in
orbit. During this era of orbital tourism, there will be
commercial spaceport dedicated to the already matured
space tourism industry.
However, spaceports for space tourism are already being
planned at many locations around the world and a
commercial spaceport is being built in the USA. These
spaceports are being planned to serve suborbital tourism,
which will begin very soon and prepared to serve orbital
tourism which will begin in a decade or more. In
Malaysia, such spaceport planning was reported in major
newspapers as early as 1999.
Early suborbital tourism spaceplanes will only perform
simple economic suborbital spaceflight from the
spaceports. The economic spaceflights will mostly be of
near-vertical flight to reach slightly above 80km from sea
level.
The suborbital spaceplanes will take-off horizontally like
conventional airplane from the runway. The spaceplane

This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.
may use jet engine or rocket engine for take-off. Then it
will fly near vertically to slightly above 80km from sea
level, as this altitude is considered as the lowest level of
space. The spaceplane later will reach its maximum
altitude where its passengers will experience zero-gravity
for less than 1 minute before it returns towards Earth due
to gravity. The spaceplane may land horizontally under
jet power or unpowered on the runway like conventional
airplane or glider.
However, for safety, the spaceplane should not be
allowed to descend near vertically directly above the
spaceport. It will only be allowed to approach the
spaceport with near horizontal flight.
Figure 1. Langkasa 4 flight profile. Langkasa 4 is a
Malaysian conceptual design of VTOL suborbital tourism
spaceplane, Other than its VTOL, its flight profile is
similar to other proposed suborbital tourism
spaceplanes. Since Langkasa 4 is VTOL capable, it can
operate from spacepad or low-cost small spaceport
without runway.
The simple flight profile and horizontal take-off and
landing of the early suborbital tourism spaceplanes will
3
th
enable existing conventional airports to function as
spaceports. The suitable airports to function as spaceports
will be small airports with not many flights to handle or
major international airports with capability of handling
many flights and the intention of providing suborbital
spaceflight as their new and extra services.
These airports can use their existing facilities particularly
their runways to support suborbital spaceflight. They
need only several extra facilities such as hangar to
service the spaceplane, storage for rocket fuel, terminal
for space tourists and maybe special tower and radar to
monitor suborbital spaceflight.
Figure 2. A simple commercial suborbital spaceport can
be an existing small airport. Suborbital spaceplanes
which take-off and land horizontally can share the
existing runway and other facilities at the airport with
other airplanes. The spaceplane in these illustrations is
Ascender, the suborbital spaceplane concept proposed by
Bristol Spaceplanes of the United Kingdom.
Suborbital spaceplanes which share the runway with
conventional airplanes may need to land with jet engine
for safety reason. The jet engine will enable the
spaceplane to abort or delay its landing if it needs to do
so to avoid accident with airplanes on the runway.
These suborbital spaceplanes will be fully reusable and
therefore will not have expendable components. The
reusability of the spaceplanes will not only decrease the
operation cost of the spaceplanes, but also that of the
spaceports.
 th
This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

Several spaceports which are also existing airports are

being planned. One being a popular such spaceport at the
time of writing is located at Curacao island in the
Caribbean. This spaceport, even at the planning stage,
already contributes to the economy of Curacao, because
it promotes the island, which is already a well known
tourism destination in the Caribbean.

Caribbean Spaceport as it is known today is an example

of an economic driven commercial spaceport, where
there is a symbiotic relationship between the spaceport
and existing tourism industry in Curacao.

However, there are totally new commercial spaceports

being planned and built. Such spaceports focus only on
suborbital spaceflight and later most probably will be
upgraded to serve orbital spaceflight. At their earlier
development stage, these spaceports will have runways
specially designed for suborbital spaceplanes. A
spaceport like this is being built in New Mexico, the
USA.

There will also be VTOL (vertical take-off & landing)

suborbital spaceplanes and single stage reusable rockets
providing suborbital tourism spaceflights from the
spaceport, which will not require runway. Therefore there
may also be spaceports without runway, and a concept of
small low-cost spaceport without runway is called
spacepad.

These spaceports will not only serve space tourism, but

also other economic activities. Among them will be
government space programs and industries which utilize
suborbital spaceflight.

Governments of modern small developing countries may

be interested to conduct space programs which utilize
suborbital spaceflight because such spaceflight will be
able to offer zero-gravity research opportunity. This zero-
gravity platform is cost effective for basic zero-gravity
research suitable for space programs belongs to modern
small developing countries.

There will also be other industries which will be the users

of suborbital spaceflight. Such industries will be from the
education, product commercialization, advertising,
entertainment and also research and development.
These commercial spaceports which start to emerge in
today’s era of space tourism are cost effective and will
have symbiotic relationship with existing industries
particularly the tourism industry if they are built in
modern small developing countries.
Figure 3. A low-cost small spacepad with Langkasa 2
and Langkasa 4. This spacepad consist of a pair of VTOL
platforms designed to look like an ancient Egyptian
temple. The obelisk is actually a control and observation
tower to monitor VTOL of suborbital spaceplanes. The
application of ancient Egypt architecture in the design of
this spacepad demonstrates the possible creativity and
innovation that can be applied in designing spacepads.

4

This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.
4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A COMMERCIAL
SUBORBITAL SPACEPORT TO A MODERN
SMALL DEVELOPING COUNTRY
Modern small developing countries are developing
countries which have democratic political atmosphere,
dynamic economy and relatively small geographical
territory. These countries have well established
information and communication infrastructures not
restricted from international community and their citizens
are well informed on the development of global
economy, politics and technology.
The governments of modern small developing countries
are dynamic governments, which have vision to
transform their countries into fully developed countries
and welcome all kind of positive modern development in
economy, politics and technology. However those
developments must be within their limited economic
capability, which is much smaller than that of the
developed countries or countries with very big population
and local market. Malaysia and a few countries in South
East Asia and other geographical regions are considered
as modern small developing countries.
Space travel has always catches the attention of the
government and people of modern small developing
countries. The government and people of these countries
are fully aware of the development in space travel in
developed countries and everywhere else in the world
through their well established unlimited information and
communication infrastructures.
Both the government and people of modern small
developing countries realize that they should have space
travel infrastructures, as they understand the significance
of these space travel infrastructures in the global
establishment and development of their economy,
politics, education and culture. However, they are also
fully aware of the economics of the space travel
infrastructures.
Therefore, politics and government agendas alone are not
the determining factors for the realization of spaceport in
modern small developing countries, but economy is the
more significant and influencing factor.
Spaceports for expendable launch vehicles like the
smaller version of Kennedy Space Center of Baikonur
Cosmodrome will not be practical or welcomed in these
countries, as they are not based on an economic or
commercial model. The spaceports suitable for these
countries will be commercial spaceports.
The emergence of commercial space travel or space
tourism has made possible the development of
5
th
commercial spaceports and created an opportunity for
modern small developing countries to develop their own
commercial spaceports.
For the time being, the developing countries can only
plan on the development of commercial suborbital
spaceports, because only suborbital spaceflights will be
available in the near future, while orbital spaceflights will
only be available in a decade or more. However, this
limitation is an advantage to the developing countries,
because it enables lower cost spaceport projects, which
will be more practical and desirable to the developing
countries. To start directly with orbital spaceflight is not
practical at all to developing countries, which lack the
necessary economy and technology. Orbital spaceflight
however may be included in the strategic or long term
planning of the spaceport.
Suborbital spaceflight is also enough for a modern small
developing country to have its own significant
commercial space program, since suborbital spaceflight
does reach space and offer zero-gravity. This country can
start its cost effective space program as soon as there is a
suborbital spaceflight service at its spaceport.
To encourage one, the country should promote and
market its spaceport and give various incentives to
potential suborbital spaceflight operators. One of the
operators may be interested to operate its suborbital
spaceplane from the spaceport.
By having a commercial suborbital spaceport in
operation, a modern small developing country can have
various space activities, which can only be done at a
developed country with a spaceport. These activities are
also significant to the developing country to provide its
citizens access to space, enable its government to execute
space missions and researches, provide opportunities to
its universities and colleges to conduct courses and
research in aerospace engineering, rocket science and
technology and space tourism, qualify its citizens as
astronauts, and promote various industries directly and
indirectly related to spaceflight.
Without own suborbital spaceport, a developing country
has to spend too much to send its citizen to space and
conduct own space program. With own spaceport in
operation and with suborbital spaceflight available at the
spaceport both the government and people can go to
space with an acceptable budget.
Access to space is important for a country, and
commercial spaceport is the access to space to modern
small developing counties. It is also the catalyst to all
kind of commercial activities directly and indirectly
related to spaceflight. The economics of a commercial
 th
This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

spaceport is such that the cost of its development and

operation will be acceptable to the government and
people of modern small developing countries.

5. SPACE CITY

There will be commercial developments within a

perimeter of a commercial spaceport. In general it will
consist of commercial space travel or space tourism,
government space programs, spaceflight user industries,
spaceflight-themed entertainment and space themed
property development.

If an existing airport is developed to function as a

spaceport besides its normal operation as airport, the area
around the airport can be commercially developed for
such developments provided there is enough land around
the airport. The developed area will be a new center of
economy and commercial activities.

Suborbital space tourism is a complex economy. It will

support various economic activities to grow around the
commercial spaceport. The space tourists will need
accommodation and facilities for training, medical
services, entertainment and shopping. Their families may
also accompany them, and contribute to the economy.

Government space program will be very contributive in

supporting the operation of commercial spaceport. The
government should consider the commercial spaceport as
its official spaceport for its space programs. The
government can train people to become astronauts and
space scientists using the suborbital spaceflights
available.
At the time of writing, sending people to space to qualify
them as astronauts is very expensive, as the only
available vehicle to carry people to space is the Russian
Soyuz launch vehicle. If a man or woman is transferred
to the International Space Station (ISS) by Soyuz, the
man or woman or the sponsors of the man or woman will
have to pay USD30 million for that. Such cost is too
much for a modern small developing country.
However, if there is a commercial suborbital spaceflight
available, the government can send men and women
aboard the suborbital spaceflight and qualify them as
astronauts. Qualifying a man or woman as an astronaut
using the service of commercial suborbital spaceflight
will only cost 0.5% - 1.0% of the cost of sending a man
or woman as an astronaut aboard ISS, and in the future
that cost will be lower as its market becomes bigger and
the industry becomes matured.
Figure 4. General layout of a space city developed within
a perimeter of an existing airport. The activities such as
commercial suborbital user industries, suborbital space
tourism and government space programs (colored
yellow) are the direct users of and income contributors to
the spaceport. Activities such as space-themed residential
property development, space-themed commercial
property development and spaceflight-themed
entertainment are the indirect benefactors and
contributors of the spaceport.
The commercial spaceport can also be the center for
zero-gravity research for the government space program,
because commercial suborbital spaceflights also offer
zero-gravity. An advantage of doing zero-gravity
research aboard suborbital spaceflight is that the
suborbital spaceflight can be repeated, and therefore the
research can be repeated. The capability to repeat a
research is very important to change the research
variables and confirm the conclusion of the research.
This can be done because commercial suborbital
spaceplane will be able to offer suborbital spaceflight
with zero-gravity research activity at the cost of only 1%
to that offered by ISS.

6
 th
This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

The government can further support the economy and

establishment of the commercial spaceport by relocating
its agencies related to space such as the space agency,
meteorology department and remote sensing department
to the area developed around the spaceport. Furthermore
those agencies are also the users of suborbital spaceflight.

There will also be private agencies using the service of

commercial suborbital spaceflight at the commercial
spaceport. They will create a new and exciting industry
which combines advertizing, event management and
entertainment.

There will be agencies which offer advertizing using the

commercial suborbital spaceflight, where the suborbital
spaceplane will be sponsored very similar to the
sponsorship of Formula 1 racing cars. The suborbital
spaceflight will also be offered as a platform for
advertizing campaign of products where the products can
be taken aboard the suborbital spaceflight and advertized
accordingly.
There will be some events or celebrations using
suborbital spaceflights, such as zero-gravity in space
marriage where a bride and groom will ride aboard a
suborbital spaceflight and the groom will put the wedding
ring on the bride’s finger in zero-gravity in space. Such
activity is suitable even aboard a small commercial
suborbital spaceplane with the condition that the small
spaceplane has a pair of passenger seats installed side by
side such as Langkasa 2, the proposed commercial
VTOL suborbital spaceplane conceptual design by Space
Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter (STS-MC).
Entertainment industry can always consider commercial
suborbital spaceflight as its component. Besides carrying
human passengers, commercial suborbital spaceplanes
can carry video recording systems for unique recording
of space or zero-gravity environment visuals or movies
for the entertainment industry.
Figure 5. Langkasa 2 is a conceptual design of VTOL
suborbital tourism spaceplane proposed by STS-MC. Its
2 passengers are seated side by side. This seating
configuration is suitable for a bride and a groom on a
“zero-gravity marriage in space” or a loving couple on a
“zero-gravity honeymoon space ride”.
An interesting spaceflight simulator can be built from a
digital dome immersive theater, which currently being
used as planetarium and science theater. This theater with
its dome screen, can create a spaceflight full dome format
movie, which will be realistic enough for entertainment,
and a large “spaceflight theater” will also be cost
effective because “it will be able to take several hundreds
of passengers on a ride”. Since there can be many
spaceflight full dome format movies offered by a
spaceflight theater, there can also be “many packages of
spaceflight to various locations in orbit or above various
locations on Earth”.

A component of entertainment industry that can take the

advantage of the operation of a commercial spaceport is
spaceflight-themed entertainment center or park. Not
many people will be able to afford the ride aboard the
commercial suborbital spaceflight, but many can afford
the ride aboard virtual spaceflights available at
spaceflight-themed parks. These parks will be equipped
with various spaceflight simulators to provide the virtual
spaceflight experiences to their visitors. Figure 6. The principal author with his 2 friends at the
front of Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the USA. This
planetarium and many other planetariums are digital
dome immersive theaters, which can function as effective
low-cost space tourism simulators at spaceflight-themed
parks near commercial spaceports.

7
 th
This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

There will also be customers from the education sector to

the commercial spaceport, because commercial suborbital
spaceflight will be very useful for science and
engineering education. Schools, colleges and universities
can start offering courses which include practical
activities and research in zero-gravity, rocket science,
high altitude science, and aerospace engineering using
suborbital flights. These schools, colleges and
universities are suitable to be built in the developed area
near the spaceport.

The operation of commercial spaceport will provide

services to biotechnology industry as there will be
product development processes in the industry which
require zero-gravity. Such industries include
pharmaceuticals may require to perform zero-gravity
experiments or product testing.

There will be commercial and residential properties

developed within a perimeter of a commercial spaceport.
The residential properties particularly will provide
opportunities to architects to design creative and
innovative space-themed houses and apartments. These
designs can be based on interesting astronomical
phenomena and objects such as solar eclipse, orbital
motions or spiral galaxies.

Another method of creating a space-themed residential is

by equipping the residential with astronomical facilities
or making it looks like astronomical facilities. This can
be done by installing astronomical observatories on the
roof of the houses and apartments. Buildings with
observatories will be automatically associated with space.
Figure 7. A basic and simple space-themed apartment.
This 5-storeys apartment has an observatory equipped
with robotic telescope on top of its roof. Each house in
the apartment has a digital output from the telescope,
which can be connected to a TV or a PC in the house,
enabling the image of objects observed by the telescope
to be projected on the TV or PC. Each house has a given
time in a week to use the telescope as its residences wish,
which can be controlled by a PC in the house. The
telescope can observe astronomical phenomena and
suborbital spaceflights. By having such observatory, the
apartment becomes space-themed because its residences
have a direct access to the observatory, which make them
“closed to and familiar with space”, and the apartment
will be designed and built with a consideration towards
the operation of the observatory. Apartments like this can
be part of the residential property development at a
space city and contribute towards “space-themed life
style”. The use of solar panels on the roof on the building
will also be extensive as solar energy is considered as
“the energy directly from space”.

8
 th
This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

All these economic activities and commercial

developments will occur within a perimeter of a
commercial spaceport, and this territory is known as
“space city”. A space city can be developed at an area
around an existing airport upgraded to a commercial
spaceport or as a totally new development project with
the commercial spaceport as its major component. For a
modern small developing country, a space city can be a
very significant national economic, political and social
catalyst.

A modern small developing country can also develop its

own fleet of suborbital tourism spaceplanes to be
operational at its space city, because the cost of
developing a prototype of the suborbital spaceplane
which can carry a passenger to reach space will not
exceed the cost of sending a person to the ISS.

An inexpensive way to make the spaceport operational is

offering zero-gravity flights by a small passenger
jetplane. This jetplane cannot reach space, but can
perform multiple zero-gravity flights in a trip.

In the future, an existing highly populated large city with

skyscrapers can also be a space city by having a
commercial VTOL spaceport. The spaceport can be an
existing skyscraper or a new building at the city. It will
also function as the main station for the trains and buses
in the city, enabling the spaceport to be the main station
for land and space transport. This will be possible when
VTOL suborbital tourism spaceplanes are in operation.

9
 th
This paper was prepared and completed on November 2010 to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the publication of the first serious article on
commercial spaceport and space tourism in a Malaysian newspaper, “KLIA as a Spaceport”. It was published as a full page article in The Sun on 15
November 1999 from an interview of the principal author by the newspaper.

6. REFERENCES

1. Cadbury, D. (2006). Space Race – The Battle to Rule

the Heavens, Harper Perennial, London, United
Kingdom.
2. Hardesty, V. Eisman, G. (2007). Epic Rivalry – The
Inside Story of the Soviet and Ameican Space Race,
National Geographic Society, Washington DC, USA.
3. Barbree, J. (2007). Live from Cape Canaveral,
Smithsonian Books, New York, USA.
4. Ridzuan Zakaria, N. Zahari, R. Abd Majid, A A.
Othman, J. (May 2007). Symbiotic Relationship
between the Astronaut Program and Space Tourism
Development – A Third World Perspective, 2nd
International Association for the Advancement of
Space Safety, Chicago, USA.
5. Ridzuan Zakaria, N. Mettauer, A. Abu, J. Roshdi
Hassan, M. Taufeek Ismail, A. Othman, J. Zhuhaida
Shaari, C. Nasron, N. (May 2010). Human Factors
Engineering in Designing the Passengers’ Cockpit of
the Malaysian Commercial Suborbital Spaceplane,
4th International Association for the Advancement of
Space Safety conference, Huntsville, AL, USA.
6. Ridzuan Zakaria, N. Abu, J. Taufeek Ismail, A. Aziz
Basri, A. (October 2010), Langkasa 2 and Langkasa
4 Vertical Take-Off & Landing Suborbital Tourism
Spaceplane Conceptual Designs and Spacepad,
Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.

7. SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Alpina Langkasa (Figures 1, 3, 5 & 8).

2. Bristol Spaceplanes Ltd. (Figure 2).
3. Setegap Venture Resources Sdn Bhd. (Figure 4 & 7).
4. Space Tourism Society Malaysia Chapter (Figure 6)

Figure 8. A 100-storeys commercial VTOL spaceport

comprise of a spacepad, hotel, medical center,
spaceflight simulator and preparation center, an
administration center, entertainment center, offices, a
shopping mall and a train and bus station. Such
commercial VTOL spaceport can be built at the center of
a future space city with high rise buildings, large
population and limited space.

10