Starport

A starport is a facility within a star system that serves as a hub for spacecraft operations, including arrival, departure, loading and unloading, refueling, and maintenance. In science fiction, starports are typically located on planetary surfaces, moons, or space habitats, and may range from small frontier outposts to large urban centers. The term is also used in speculative or planning discussions to describe envisioned hubs that connect different worlds or regions, potentially handling interplanetary or interstellar traffic.

Typical components of a starport include landing or docking areas, docking bays or pads, and hangars for storage and repair of ships. Support facilities commonly present at starports are fuel depots, cargo handling and storage, passenger terminals, and customs or immigration facilities in planetary contexts. Centralized operations are supported by mission control, communications centers, and safety and security infrastructure. Depending on the setting, starports may feature gravity control, environmental systems, or modular infrastructure that can be expanded as traffic grows.

Starports can be surface-based on planetary bodies or orbital, including space stations that same serve as transfer points between drives or shuttles. They are typically operated by government space agencies, private companies, or public-private partnerships, and governed by airspace and space traffic management protocols, safety standards, and regulatory compliance. Notable differences among starports often relate to scale, accessibility, and the range of services offered, from basic refueling and cargo handling to full-service passenger, maintenance, and logistics complexes.

In fiction, starports provide a setting for commerce, travel, and cultural exchange, reflecting the economic and social dynamics of a broader interworld or interstellar network. The concept has influenced real-world discussions of future space logistics and infrastructure, even as current facilities and technologies remain more limited than those depicted in many works of fiction.