All my other systems have spaceports but one does not.  I have no idea how the others have spaceports but from what I understand you have to be a lvl 1system.  Obviously, there is something else that must happen or this current lvl 1 system would have a spaceport.  What am I missing?

Spaceports don't appear until you upgrade your system to level 2. Level 2 allows you to send 3 population at a time to any system while Level 3 and Level 4 increase that cap by 1 to 4 and 5 respectively.