Ministers will announce a list of eight possible locations for a spaceport tomorrow at the Farnborough air show.
The spaceport, which will be in operation by 2018, will be used to launch manned missions and commercial satellites.
Officials are studying several possible sites, said the Guardian, and the list is believed to include locations north of Scotland, Bristol, Norfolk and the Outer Hebrides.
Virgin boss Richard Branson has already identified Lossiemouth on the Moray coast of Scotland as a possible site for Virgin Galactic’s commercial space flights, although the first of these is due to launch – possibly later this year – from a purpose-built spaceport in New Mexico.
Branson said he wants to open spaceports in other countries and Virgin has already head talks with Scottish ministers about locating a site at Lossiemouth.
