Space travel will take off in five years, travel boss says: "Will Whitehorn said the Lossiemouth Royal Air Force base in Moray, in Scotland, is on track to be used as a base for the company's spacecraft from 2011.

Virgin Galactic, owned by billionaire British entrepreneur Richard Branson, will charge 110,000 pounds (209,600 dollars, 162,900 euros) a ticket to give passengers to experience weightlessness for five minutes.

It plans to operate around seven spacecraft that will fly 87 miles (156 kilometres) above the earth's surface.

Whitehorn, speaking after a visit to the base on Wednesday, said: 'I met with all the officers on the base today and we agreed it was perfectly technically feasible.' "