Spaceport
A spaceport is a facility from which flights to and from space are served. There are various spaceports across Earth and the Solar System; for terrestrial planets, they are also commonly combined with an airport, train station, and other amenities to facilitate onward connections. The largest spaceport on Earth (and in the Solar System generally) is the Detroit Spaceport, with 12 million passengers and over 57,000 arrivals and departures per day. The physical construction of a spaceport, including its main concourses, is very similar to an airport, but at a significantly greater scale. Launchpads and landing pads are placed far away from the terminal buildings for noise and safety reasons; passengers are often ferried to the pad via rail or bus.
Operations
Spaceports have massive traffic operations control facilities, which combine ground-based radar for the atmospheric component of spaceflight with satellite data. They also manage the return and refuelling of rocket boosters and other launch components.
Economy
Spaceports are some of the most profitable operations in human society, and are often the prized possessions of megacorporations such as Paradigm, where they are treated as strategic assets. In many cases, they allow said corporations to maintain a monopoly over space travel in entire cities while treating their own activities preferentially.
While the number of daily spaceflights is immense, this is due to the vastly increased population count and not the status of spaceflight as an economic commodity. Spaceflight still remains one of the most expensive transportation methods, regularly affordable only to employees of large corporations. Some corporations do operate budget services for individuals; however, these are usually treated as low priority and still remain very expensive compared to general aviation. A flight from London to Detroit is approximately U€800, while a budget Paradigm ticket from Earth to Mars can cost up to U€12,000.
Security
Spaceports are some of the most security-paranoid locations accessible to the public, largely more so than airports. This is due to both the massively increased population and individual diversity making all passengers a potential threat. Especially prominent is the presence of scanners for entropic radiation and other types of exophysical activity at security checkpoints; a service which is provided by Raven's Anomaly Detection division. Spaceports also often employ ground-to-air missile defences, electronic countermeasures, and automated anti-UAV systems. The overall security of a spaceport is often provided by a PMC, such as Aphelion Securities Group or Black Glass Group, contracted out by the corporation or government that owns it.