The site of the former NASA station at Cooper's Island could once more become Bermuda's link to outer space.

The out-of-bounds area of buildings and infrastructure abandoned by the US space agency when it left the Island in 2001 is being viewed as one of two likely spots for a commercial satellite operation.

The other site possibility is also a former US establishment, the one-time US Navy listening post and research base at Tudor Hill in Southampton.

Both are being considered as the best spots for an earth station to track and communicate with orbiting space satellites.

At the end of last week TerreStar Global revealed it had signed a letter of intent with Government to build a satellite operations facility in Bermuda after the Island became part of the UK Outer Space Act last November.

Bermuda's geographical position will allow TerreStar to carry out satellite operations for North American satellites and for a planned European satellite network.

Mobile communications provider TerreStar is a subsidiary of Motient Corporation and plans to own and operate the first next-generation mobile satellite integrated with terrestrial communications networks and to offer a 4G IP network.

The company said it was working with Government to "re-develop existing, but currently unutilised, building sites in Bermuda" for the location of a new satellite station. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce this week confirmed the two sites under consideration were the former NASA base at Cooper's Island and the site of the old US Navy base at Tudor Hill.

NASA opened its Cooper's Island base in 1961 and it was used as a tracking and communications facility for various space programmes, including the Mercury and Apollo missions and space shuttle flights because of its key geographical position in relation to launch trajectories for space vehicles blasting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The base was shut down in 2001 and is now a collection of abandoned buildings and related structures. Part of the area has already been earmarked by Government as a future nature reserve and visitor centre.

Tudor Hill was an important listening base for the US Navy during the Cold War and played a role tracking Soviet submarines heading for Cuba. It opened in 1955 and was decommissioned in 1995.

When the TerreStar announcement was made Telecommunications Minister Neletha Butterfield said it was another step in the Ministry's strategic plans to develop a satellite services industry on the Island that would assist international business but also bring the latest communications technologies to the Island.

TerreStar intends to offer other benefits to Bermuda to benefit its culture and economy, such as offering training and an education component to its development project and a new communications system for the Island allowing faster mobile data transmission rates of up to 20 megabits per second.