The year is 2020. In northern Scotland, Europe’s only space base is launching its inaugural flight. The five-seater space ship shoots into the stratosphere. From 65 miles up the excited astro-tourists gaze down at the Highlands, where distinctive peaks and troughs are identifiable from space. One passenger spots a familiar landmark and shouts: “Check this oot, boys, ah can see Loch Ness!” Futuristic codswallop? You are forgiven for thinking so. But according to the man behind Richard Branson’s space tourism company, northern Scotland is the ideal location for a European tourism space base.

The sparsely populated wilderness is perfect, says Will Whitehorn, director of Virgin Galactic, which has promised commercial space flights within two years. “It’s very likely we will operate from northern Scotland in the future. It’s an interesting location. At 74 miles high you’d see the Highlands, the North Sea and Scotland’s very distinct outline. It would all be visible,” says the Edinburgh-born Whitehorn. “Scotland is one of only two suitable locations in Europe, the other being Lapland. They’re the only places with few overflying aircraft, plenty of space and a small population. This allows for long runways. We’ll be planning a trip to Scotland at some point to look into it.”

In the meantime, Whitehorn, who is addressing the Edinburgh International Science Festival a week today, is focused on the company’s more pressing mission: the world’s first commercial flight into space.

Launch date is 2008, and would-be astronauts are queuing up to fork out £120,000 for the suborbital trip, described by space experts as a “reverse bungee jump”. Already 167 tickets have been sold — that is $13.1m (£7.49m) worth of deposits. Virgin bosses are confident more will dig into their pockets over the next year and a half. Celebrities who have signed up include the Alien star Sigourney Weaver, the former Dallas actress Victoria Principal, Bryan Singer, director of the latest Superman film, and Trevor Beattie, the British advertising guru and adviser to the Labour party.

Interest rocketed in 2004 when the aviation designer Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne successfully flew more than 62 miles into space to claim the coveted X-Prize, a $10m trophy designed to galvanise the private space-flight industry. Branson and Rutan formed The Spaceship Company, which is working on delivering five suborbital flight vehicles to Virgin Galactic.

Test flights for SpaceShipTwo begin next year. While seats on the inaugural flight are reserved for Branson and his family, Whitehorn will be close behind. So far only 435 people have gone into space and Whitehorn reckons he will be among the first 500. He will also be the first Scot. Passengers on the flights, who will receive just one week’s training, will experience an even faster acceleration than a Nasa astronaut. The space ship is carried into the sky by a mother ship, which drops it at around 50,000ft. Solo, it goes from 130 knots to the speed of sound in six seconds then travels 65 miles above the Earth, the conventional definition of space being an altitude of 62 miles.

From their vantage point the passengers will be enveloped in the blackness of space, but be able to see the blue curvature of earth.

They will experience weightlessness and be allowed to move around the cabin. Eventually such awe- inspiring journeys will become commonplace, Whitehorn predicts, and the ticket price will fall to below £50,000.

Whitehorn, who learnt to fly at Turnhouse airport in Edinburgh with the RAF cadets, admits he is a thrill-seeker. He enjoys “pulling the Gs” and insists he is not the least bit nervous at the prospect of entering the realms of the unknown. This voyage, he says, will make his childhood wish come true.

“I remember sitting in my house in Edinburgh when I was eight or nine years old watching the first moon landings. My mother used to tell me one day I’d do that,” says Whitehorn. “On this occasion she was right.”

With competition from entrepreneurs around the world, the space race is well and truly on. But attempts by rivals to encroach on Virgin territories, as Whitehorn calls space, aren’t even registering on the director’s entrepreneurial radar.

“We’re the only ones to have launched another prototype that can take people into space at these costs. No other company has built something that works yet,” he says.

Whitehorn, who attended Edinburgh Academy, has worked for Virgin for the past 20 years. He wrote to the company in 1986 suggesting a business strategy, drawing on his experience as a BA helicopter crewman in the North Sea and working for the travel agents Thomas Cook. After joining, he rose to become the company’s head of public affairs and Branson’s official spokesman. Today he is frequently described as Branson’s “right-hand man”, a tag he is reluctant to accept.

What’s Branson like to work for? Suddenly Whitehorn’s speedy replies are sent into slow motion. He chooses his words carefully.

“Good question. Ehh, fascinating. Ehh, fun. Ehh, challenging,” he says, before finally launching into a description of the business tycoon.

“He’s fascinating to work for. He doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer very easily. But he does listen to people, even if he draws his own conclusions. He is charming, and doesn’t separate work and family. For him it’s all one thing. That’s very rare.”

Despite his work’s futuristic proportions, Whitehorn has a surprisingly firm grip on reality. He says it’s not the thrill of space travel that motivates him, but the entrepreneurial challenge. Proving the commercial viability and safety of the system is top of Whitehorn’s agenda. After that, he says, the sky really is the limit.

“We could eventually go to the moon — in fact, we’re already talking to people about space hotels,” he says. “But plans all depend on this project. If it’s a success, which I think it will be, it will bring space transportation forward with a massive leap. That’s incredibly exciting.”

Will Whitehorn will appear at the Royal Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, on April 16 at 8pm, as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. Tickets £5/£7

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