A few weeks ago, a spokesman for Sir Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic confirmed that it has chosen Scotland as the venue for a spaceport. In the shortlist of sites, the front runner is Lossiemouth. Kinloss and Machrihanish are also under consideration.

If these plans come to reality there is a 60 per cent chance that the shores of the Moray Firth will become this country's portal into space by as early as 2013, only five years away.

Why Lossiemouth? The RAF base already provides good infrastructure, there is a long runway essential for the gliding landing of the space craft, and the nearby expanse of sea provides open access and reduced risk of damage. Also the climate and the visibility are good and there is relatively little air traffic.

What Branson has in mind is space tourism. Forget long voyages into the outer reaches of the solar system, photography trips to the moons of Saturn, or field club excursions to walk the canals of Mars. At least for the foreseeable.

The space trips in Branson's outfit will be short, presumably sweet and definitely weightless for a wee while.

The ship will rise from the ground piggyback style, blast free in the upper layers of the atmosphere, power itself vertically upwards, run out of fuel and then coast like a bullet in a curving flight that will bring the craft back to land on the runway.

The technology is not new. It has been in use for decades, since even before the American space flights of the 1960s.

The top of the curve before the descent, about 87 miles above the earth's surface, will give the passengers around eight minutes of weightlessness, long enough to chase a floating ball of espresso around the cabin, should they be so minded, and take all those important photos to show on return.

According to Virgin Galactic, around 65,000 people have already signed up for this experience, depositing $200,000 each to reserve their seats. Richard Branson hopes that this will become the "must do" of international tourism. The ships are being built now and five will be ready by 2013.

It was a good topic for the inaugural meeting of Inverness's first café scientifique. Based loosely on the cafes philosophiques in Paris, where philosophers emerge from their ivory towers and engage in debate with the public in cafes or bars, the café scientifique movement began in Leeds in 1998 and has since spread to many other cities.

For the first one here, a group of enthusiasts decided on Borders as the venue and space as the topic. The prime movers have been Howie Firth and Maarten de Vries, and a logo — an owl with professorial eyes — has been designed by Selena Kuzman, an art student at Moray College.

Maarten de Vries gave a short presentation on the plans for Lossiemouth and then we moved on to discuss some of the ramifications. This is what the cafes scientifiques are all about, a chance for the public to hear the scientific point of view and enjoy a debate.

The science is serious, the talk is friendly. Saturday's audience included people of all ages and backgrounds.

It was mentioned that another hot topic in Lossie is the new Tesco. There were some jokes about the possibility of combining the ventures. We imagined a car park with spaces designated for extra-terrestrials with silhouettes of little green figures.

More seriously, the prospect of a spaceport presents possibilities for plenty of jobs and economic spin off.

As well as employment directly in the running of the space base and in associated research facilities, there will be services for tourists who will come just to see what's happening. Witness the crowds that flocked to Cape Canaveral to watch Apollo missions blast off.

Tourism to see the dolphins brings in some £8 million a year, goes the argument, a figure that will be increased enormously by the presence of Virgin Galactic.

The prospects of lift off from Lossie got the café scientifique off to a good start. There are plenty more topics to come, so watch out for the dates and the venues.

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