The UK Government has unveiled plans to establish a spaceport within the next four years.
Being the first-of-its-kind outside the US, the spaceport will be used to launch manned missions and commercial satellites.
The government-shortlisted eight aerodromes for the spaceport will be revealed at Farnborough Air Show tomorrow.
Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander was quoted by BBC as saying that Scotland could play a key role in the government’s plans for developing commercial space travel.
"Spaceports will be key to us opening up the final frontier of commercial space travel," Alexander said.
"The UK space industry is one of our great success stories and I am sure there will be a role for Scotland to play in the future."
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By GlobalDataThe spaceport is likely to be used to launch space tourist flights by Virgin Galactic and the US spaceflight development firm XCOR.
The UK Government statistics show that the country’s space sector employs 34,000 people, and is generating more than £11bn for the economy each year.
Business secretary Vince Cable said: "This week, we will announce the next steps for this country’s space race, outlining how we will take one giant leap towards establishing the first British spaceport by 2018, making the UK the place for space."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Scotland is proving that it has the expertise to attract and support such a specialised, global industry, and as such an independent Scotland will be an attractive option for spaceport pioneers."
Last week, Scotland’s first ever-assembled spacecraft, UKube-1, was successfully launched on a test flight from Kazakhstan.
