• A team of Japanese architects have designed a concept for a futuristic, four-story spaceport, meant to float just off the shore in Tokyo Bay.
  • The “Spaceport Japan” is designed like a traditional airport, except that spaceplanes, not commercial airliners, dock at various different gates.
  • The team are hoping to turn the concept into a reality “as soon as possible” to expand the country’s space industry.

A team of Japanese architects, under the “Space Port Japan Association” (SPJ) banner, have designed a breathtaking concept for a futuristic, four-story spaceport, meant to float just off the shore in Tokyo Bay.

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The concept, called “Spaceport Japan,” echoes the layout of a traditional airport — except that spaceplanes, not commercial airliners, dock at various different gates. There are even drop-off and pick-up lanes via roadways that connect the spaceport to the mainland.

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The spaceport has been designed to float off-shore in Tokyo Bay.
Image: SPJ

A solar panel layer “hovers” over the structure, allowing for the placement of patios, open-air gardens, and “even farmlands in various scale, while providing covered public space for people and other means of personal mobility,” a description by architecture firm Noiz Architects reads.

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Solar panels are utilised all over the design.
Image: SPJ

Two towers will pierce through this solar panel layer, each dedicated to departures and arrivals, ensuring that the port will be “recognizable from far away.”

Upper levels will allow passengers to view the departure of various spaceplanes, which will take passengers on a two-hour space shuttle experience into orbit.

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Its designers hope the project will be a reality soon.
Image: SPJ

The spaceport will provide real estate for space-based research and business.

The site will also make sure passengers are entertained and catered to with a hotel, art museum, gym, aquarium, and even cinema.

So far, Spaceport Japan is not much more than a beautiful computer render — but SPJ is hoping to turn the concept into a reality “as soon as possible” to expand the country’s space industry.