Virgin space tourists could be launched from Scotland by 2015



An RAF base in Scotland could be launching tourists into space by 2015, it has been revealed today.

Sir Richard Branson’s UK Space Agency has identified Lossiemouth as the ‘ideal’ location from where a spaceflight would take off.

Will Whitehorn, the Virgin Galactic president, said the company is pressing for changes to legislation in Britain which does not permit commercial flights.

Lift off: Artist's impression of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space flight

‘It’s one of the first things that the UK Space Agency is looking at. Lossiemouth would be ideal — a long runway and clear airspace is what we’d want,’ Mr Whitehorn told The Times today.

Virgin Galactic is confident that space tourism will go ahead by 2012 in the U.S. – having already taken more than $65million (£45million) in bookings from 335 wannabe astronauts.

About 50 per cent of those already signed up are American, with the next biggest interest coming from Britain.

The physicist Stephen Hawking, the environmentalist James Lovelock and most recently the comedian Russell Brand have reserved their places.

Space tourist: Russell Brand, pictured with fiancee Katy Perry, has signed up for a Virgin Galactic flight. Right, Will Whitehorn

Mr Whitehorn said UK Space Agency is pushing the government to amend the 1986 Outer Space Act, which did not account for space tourists.

‘Not surprisingly, people didn’t envisage human space flight from the UK in 1986, let alone that it would be a centre for space tourism,’ he told the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Each aspiring space tourist will have to pay about $200,000 (£134,000) for a few minutes of suborbital spaceflight.

However, there are no fitness requirements for passengers, with older people singled out as being able to cope better with high g-forces, according to Mr Whitehorn.

‘Our oldest customer, James Lovelock, is 92. We put him in a centrifuge and he was absolutely fine,’ he said.

Older people’s arteries tend to be narrower and less responsive, meaning they would be less likely to experience sudden rushes of blood to the head, which can cause people to pass out.

Virgin SpaceShipTwo, which made its inaugural test flight over the California desert in March, will be carried by WhiteKnightTwo to an altitude of 50,000ft and then released by the mothership.

Commercial operations are set to begin in 2012. A crew of two will fly the spaceship which will carry six passengers through the edge of the atmosphere for a brief zero-gravity experience and views of the Earth far below before gliding to a landing.