To be on top of their game, the squadrons of Tornado GR4s need to be in the skies a lot. And they add plenty of atmosphere to the area. Now that I don’t live there, I really miss them, when I said I wouldn’t. Many’s a summer evening dog-walk by the sands had added interest when these awesome beasts appeared from the north-east, way out over the firth, and came in, thundering over the waves, landing lights on, wheels down, to disappear behind the golf course. The comings and goings of ‘the Mighty Fin’ are part of the skyscape - inescapable, impossible to ignore, but reassuring for all that. 
The base’s Sea King air-sea rescue yellow helicopters no doubt still clatter ominously off to the south, towards the Cairngorms probably because of another climber in trouble. Weird rows of lights hanging above the horizon usually turn out to be a Nimrod, in its seemingly endless smoky circling round RAF Kinloss, just down the road from RAF Lossiemouth. Once, in the dusk, at the top of the gorsy sandhills by the lighthouse, I saw a trail of fiery light leave the runway and go vertically up to the evening clouds in seconds. I guessed it was my first view of the Eurofighter. And such displays of expensive technology and skill above the marram grass, barley fields and woods go mostly unremarked. 
From all this I conclude that Virgin Galactic’s possible use of the Lossiemouth base to operate their space trips will fit in very well. The mother-ship, taking off in tandem with the actual space vehicle, may even become as everyday as the other aircraft. And, as the detaching and launch of the space ship takes place at 50,000 ft, it’ll probably just be another mysterious sound in the sky.
Recent reports suggest this could all happen within five years. So if you’ve got £135,000, then book yourself a seat. Virgin Galactic will take a deposit of £14,000. It seems quite a lot – but you experience weightlessness and get great views, though elements of this can be experienced after a couple of glasses of any of the local malt whiskies. Still, Moray, the land beyond the mountains, with its dual Highland and Lowland personality, has been looking for a unique selling point or years. Can’t wait for take-off, though I won’t be heading skywards . I’ll be the one on the beach, open-mouthed in awe.