Standardization: The key for future spaceport operations

Spaceports of the future will probably look like airports today, having similar infrastructure and design, but serve different markets: sub-orbital, orbital, and even inter-planetary transportation. The ideal state for any transportation system is to have efficient, safe, and low cost operations. In order to bring space transportation from its adolescence today into adulthood tomorrow, a paradigm shift must drive towards the definition and implementation of ground infrastructure standards for space transportation that will ultimately influence the design of the flight hardware. In order for spaceports of tomorrow to operate as efficiently as other transportation systems today, standardization is paramount.