Spaceportopia

The term "Spaceportopia" is used in the Aerospace Corporation paper, Spaceportopia: A Primer For Successful Launch Site Planning by Karen L. Jones, Priyanka Dhopade, and Lindsay DeMarchi.^[1] The term draws inspiration from the concept of "Astrotopia" —a term explored in Mary-Jane Rubenstein's book Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race.^[2]

In Astrotopia, Rubenstein critiques the ideologies that drive the modern space race: visions of salvation, boundless opportunity, with technology seen as the key to solving all problems and overcoming our earthly limits. Rubenstein argues that such ideologies can obscure the real-world consequences of space activity.

Translating this to spaceport development, "Spaceportopia" refers to the overly idealistic or speculative visions surrounding the establishment of launch sites. These visions promise economic revitalization, global prestige, and seamless integration into the space economy. Like Astrotopia, Jones, Dhopade and DeMarchi argue that these dreams can be untethered from the economic, social, and environmental realities on the ground.

While spaceports are frequently imagined as engines of progress, they are also embedded in specific geographies, communities, and business clusters or ecosystems. The authors argue that planning for spaceports must move beyond techno-utopian narratives and instead grapple with complex, grounded questions of long-term viability, land use, regulatory context, and local impact.