[SKRIVA] Skottland mot Sverige i kamp om rymdflygplats

From: Ahrvid Engholm <ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <sverifandom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:42:38 +0100
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9694766.stm

"The United States may be the home for Sir Richard Branson's space 
tourism venture Virgin Galactic, but, even though flights are not 
scheduled to take off until at least 2013, is he already looking for a 
European base?Almost 500 people have bought tickets for the 
190-minute journey offering about five minutes of weightlessness in 
space for $200,000 (£127,000), taking off from a bespoke spaceport in 
the New Mexico desert. Despite there being a number of 
legislative and contractual conundrums to be solved before commercial 
services can begin, the excitement about the possibility of a holiday - 
albeit a short one - in space has already taken hold. ...
And the UK wants the place of expansion to be in Scotland. The
 Department for Business says that the UK is keen to attract commercial 
operations to the country and that Scotland remains a potential base for
 space tourism in the UK. RAF Lossiemouth, the largest and 
busiest fast-jet base in the Royal Air Force, is seen as the leading 
site for any space tourism in the UK to take place. With science minister David 
Willetts 
            telling the Daily Telegraph he wants Virgin Galactic to launch in 
Europe and former Virgin Galactic
 president Will Whitehorn saying that space tourism flights could take 
off from Scotland -  at one point said to be as early as in 2013 - all looked 
well for the Scottish
Highlands to reach for the stars. "One
 of the reasons that places like Lossiemouth have been mooted as 
possible launch sites is because it is relatively far away from centres 
of population," says Jeremy Curtis, of the UK Space Agency. ...
But there are no firm plans for a spaceport in Scotland and there is 
one European country in particular that is trying to get a jump on the 
rest of the pack. It already has a functioning spaceport - Sweden. "There
 are a few places in the world trying to establish this but none has 
come as far as we have," says Karin Nilsdotter, chief executive officer 
of Spaceport Sweden. "
"Spaceport Sweden wants to offer you and me the opportunity to go into space 
but already now we are offering space adventures." An
 adventure involves flying to high altitudes to get a clear view of the 
Northern Lights without any risk of cloud cover getting in the way. "Spaceport 
Sweden is potentially a great place to fly from," says Stephen Attenborough, 
commercial director of Virgin Galactic. "They've got the ice hotel, it's a 
great destination and you get a great view - different from New Mexico."

(Sorry för ev dålig formatering. Kan bli så vid klipp/klistra. Iaf, i Skottland 
har man tänkt sig använda en gammal RAF-flygbas. Inget är beslutat. Virgin 
Galactic har inte ens bestämt när man skall börja med rymdflygningar i Europa.)

--Ahrvid

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[SKRIVA] Skottland mot Sverige i kamp om rymdflygplats

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