More news on the development of RAF Lossiemouth as a 'Spaceport', courtesy of Jenny Davey at The Sunday Times.
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is seeking government support to launch commercial space flights in Britain.
Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, has held talks with Lord Drayson, the science minister, in the past few weeks about establishing an operation at the Lossiemouth RAF airbase.
Virgin wants the government to amend the 1986 Outer Space Act to allow it to launch space flights here. The legislation makes it difficult to run such a service in Britain.
The plan has the support of Andy Green, chief executive of the software giant Logica, who is chairing the Space Innovation and Growth Team, which is due to report to Drayson in January on ways to boost the sector in Britain.
Virgin estimates that bringing Virgin Galactic to Britain could create up to 2,000 jobs in the area. Green believes it would also spur greater interest in the fast-growing space industry, which supports 68,000 jobs in this country.
Scientists have warned that climatic conditions could hamper Virgin’s plans to run its operation from Scotland. RAF Lossiemouth has substantial cloud cover for nearly two-thirds of the time. However, Whitehorn said it would be possible to operate the Virgin Galactic service despite poor weather because the spacecraft is launched from a mothership that carries it up to 50,000 ft.
Virgin Galactic will charge $200,000 (£122,000) a head for a two-hour space flight. The first services will operate from Space- port America in New Mexico and the first flights outside America are likely to be from a base in Sweden.
Virgin’s interest has emerged just days after Logica’s Green wrote to Drayson calling for the creation of a UK space agency and a national space programme.
The space sector has grown 9% a year over the past decade, more than three times faster than the economy as a whole.
Once given the green light, this will see property prices in the area 'rocket' if you pardon the pun ! Certainly worth an investment punt in the area I believe.
Scotty, beam me aboard....
Mr Jackson.
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