Some more news on Virgin Galactic’s visit to RAF Lossiemouth, which is being scouted as a potential Scottish base for the space tourism company:
- Press Association: Branson wants Scotland to rival the Kennedy Space Center: a spokesman for the air base said both sides are interested in the proposal, and that informal discussions between air base officials and Virgin date back three months.
- The Herald: How Lossiemouth is joining space race: The air base is the only location in the UK that Virgin is considering. Will Whitehorn said that the first 200 tickets have been sold at $200,000 each; those flights will take place from Mojave.
- AFP: Space travel will take off in five years, travel boss says: Whitehorn expects SS2 flights to start from Lossiemouth, if approved, in 2011.
- Glasgow Daily Record: Lossiemouth.. We Have Lift Off: Whitehorn said everything is “right on schedule”, while an unnamed RAF spokesman said “Everyone seems to be singing from the same hymn sheet, which is brilliant.”
[…] The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) sent out a notice to the media earlier today inviting them to attend the “inauguration” of Spaceport Sweden in the Arctic city of Kiruna on January 26th, and the announcement of a partnership with Virgin Galactic. Kiruna is already home to the Esrange Space Center, used for sounding rocket flights, but the site’s supporters now want it to become known as “Europe’s first and most obvious place for personal suborbital spaceflight.” It would appear that Kiruna has won out over sites in Scotland, such as RAF Lossiemouth, as Virgin’s first European spaceport. Flight International has some more details, and there is already a placeholder site for Spaceport Sweden that will go live on January 26. […]