Virgin Galactic are looking at five future space flight bases - with Scotland among them.

The information comes in an interview given by the spaceline's president Will Whitehorn to Arabian Travel News. The company is building Spaceport America in New Mexico, and says that it wants to expand its operation elsewhere.

'We are looking at five other spaceports,' he said.

'One is in North Scotland and another is in Sweden where there is already a space base for NASAS - both of these would be seasonal bases.

'We would look at the Gulf, but we would need to build the infrastructure - you couldn't have it at Dubai Airport for example, because you can't launch space flights when other flights are taking off.'

He said that Australasia, and most probably Australia, which was 'very enthusiastic' about Virgin Galactic, would be another potential spaceport site.

Meanwhile a Sunday Mail report also confirms Scotland is in Virgin Galactic's thinking. The paper says that Lossiemouth operations could start in 2014, after the company have had two or three years of experience at New Mexico.