Snowdonia fears impact of UK spaceport decision

Consultation on eight sites ends this week with lift-off set for 2018 but communities say they have been kept in the darkMore than 800 families at a time can pitch their tents at Shell island, Europe's biggest campsite, at the edge of the wild Rhinog mountains in Snowdonia. But they could soon get more than tranquillity, fresh air and massive sand dunes. The barely used Llanbedr airstrip that adjoins the camp, near Harlech, is one of eight coastal locations identified by the government as potential sites for Britain's first commercial spaceport.Should the old RAF site be picked to launch satellites and host wealthy space tourists paying ?120,000 or more for short, sub-orbital flights 65 miles above the Earth, the runway inside the national park would have to be extended through the protected dunes, narrow lanes would have to be widened, and giant fuel dumps, a terminal, hangars and dozens of other facilities would need to be built. Continue reading...