A SCOTTISH former RAF base could become home to the UK’s first spaceport within five years.
The site could be used to launch satellites, or possibly become a home for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceplane which plans to ferry high-paying tourists into space.
Willets said at a space industry forum: “I like the ambition for a UK spaceport by 2018. We are absolutely up for supporting that development.”
Expert George Fraser, of Leicester University, said Kinloss would be the ideal site for a spaceport.
He said: “I think in the UK, Kinloss is as good asite as one can think of, it’s got all the infrastructure and hangars.”
RAF Lossiemouth had previously been considered as a base for the spacecraft, but the base if still being used for Typhoon jets.